Which to use
“paies” is a noun and “punies” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,619
- “paies” frequency rank
- #44,653
- “punies” frequency rank
- 64272
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paies | punies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de paie. | Féminin pluriel de puni. |
Where the eye mixes paies and punies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. paies runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against punies's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses paies with punies
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: paies is \pɛ\ while punies is \py.ni\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64272, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paies is recorded at frequency rank #19,619, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ\. punies is at rank #44,653, tagged as anadj, pronounced \py.ni\.
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 64272, this pair ranks #77,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of paies vs punies
Shared letters: eips. Private to "paies": a. Private to "punies": nu.
"paies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "punies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "paies" for "punies" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "paies" or "punies" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "paies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "punies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #77,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paies" and "punies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prunier vs punies". 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 #77,848 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.