PetrvspeuWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Petr is a name, peu is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Petr” is a name and “peu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,446
“Petr” frequency rank
#40,134
“peu” frequency rank
67580
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Petr peu
Definition tschechischer männlicher Vorname der Fuß; der unterste Abschnitt der Beine der Wirbeltiere, bei den Primaten und dem Menschen nur der beiden hinteren/unteren Extremitäten

Where the eye mixes Petr and peu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Petr runs 4 letters (CVCC) against peu's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Petr
3 ch
peu

Look-alike desk: Petr vs peu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Petr is [pɛtr̩] while peu is [pɛw]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Petr is recorded at frequency rank #27,446, classified as aname, pronounced [pɛtr̩]. peu is at rank #40,134, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pɛw].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 67580, this pair ranks #535,519 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Petr vs peu

Shared letters: ep. Private to "Petr": rt. Private to "peu": u.

"Petr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "peu" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Petr ← eptr · pert · petrr · pettr · ppetr · pter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Petr" and "peu" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Petr" is a name and "peu" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Petr" or "peu" show up more?
"Petr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,446 in our German list, against #40,134 for "peu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Petr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "peu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #535,519 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Petr" and "peu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peu vs PMS". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #535,519 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list