Which to use
“pair” and “puit” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,212
- “pair” frequency rank
- #41,476
- “puit” frequency rank
- 48688
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pair | puit |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne de même condition et de même rang dans l’état. | Variante orthographique de puits. |
Where the eye mixes pair and puit
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses pair with puit
A purely visual mix-up. pair (\pɛʁ\) and puit (\pɥi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pair is recorded at frequency rank #7,212, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ\. puit is at rank #41,476, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɥi\.
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 48688, this pair ranks #176,807 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pair vs puit
Shared letters: ip. Private to "pair": ar. Private to "puit": tu.
"pair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "puit" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pair" and "puit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pair" or "puit"?
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 "pair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "puit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #176,807 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pair" and "puit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs puit". 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 #176,807 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.