Which to use
“paient” is a verb and “point” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,358
- “paient” frequency rank
- #217
- “point” frequency rank
- 9575
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paient | point |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de payer. | Action de piquer dans un tissu avec une aiguille enfilée ou résultat de cette action, piqûre. |
Where the eye mixes paient and point
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between paient and point
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: paient is \pɛ\ while point is \pwɛ̃\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paient is recorded at frequency rank #9,358, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛ\. point is at rank #217, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃\.
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 9575, this pair ranks #416,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paient vs point
Shared letters: inpt. Private to "paient": ae. Private to "point": o.
"paient" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC · "point" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "paient" for "point" ever safe?
Which is more common, "paient" or "point"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "paient" and "point" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "paient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "point" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paient" and "point" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paient vs payen". 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 #416,166 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.