Which to use
“pains” is a noun and “peins” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,919
- “pains” frequency rank
- #48,098
- “peins” frequency rank
- 59017
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pains | peins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pain. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de peindre. |
Same sound, different letters: pains vs peins
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. pains and peins follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Homophone desk: pains vs peins
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: pains and peins carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɛ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - a in “pains” becomes e in “peins”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59017, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pains is recorded at frequency rank #10,919, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃\. peins is at rank #48,098, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛ̃\.
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 59017, this pair ranks #105,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pains vs peins
Shared letters: inps. Private to "pains": a. Private to "peins": e.
"pains" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "peins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pains" for "peins" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "pains" or "peins" show up more?
What to do next
"pains" and "peins" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "pains" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "peins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #105,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pains" and "peins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peins vs pètes". 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 #105,561 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.