Which to use
“paire” and “peine” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,630
- “paire” frequency rank
- #483
- “peine” frequency rank
- 4113
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paire | peine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deux choses de même espèce, qui vont nécessairement ou ordinairement ensemble. | Punition, sanction ou châtiment infligé(e) pour une faute commise, pour un acte jugé répréhensible ou coupable, et en particulier punition pour une infraction à la loi et prononcée par un jugement. |
Where the eye mixes paire and peine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. paire and peine follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between paire and peine
A purely visual mix-up. paire (\pɛʁ\) and peine (\pɛn\) 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 4113, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paire is recorded at frequency rank #3,630, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ\. peine is at rank #483, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛn\.
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 4113, this pair ranks #432,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paire vs peine
Shared letters: eip. Private to "paire": ar. Private to "peine": n.
"paire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "peine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "paire" and "peine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "paire" or "peine"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "paire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "peine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #432,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paire" and "peine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paire vs priée". 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 #432,430 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.