pairsvspartConfusable pair

Quick tell: pairs is a adjective, part is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pairs” is an adjective and “part” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,209
“pairs” frequency rank
#193
“part” frequency rank
9402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pairs part
Definition Masculin pluriel de pair. Portion de quelque chose qui se divise entre plusieurs personnes.

Where the eye mixes pairs and part

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pairs
4 ch
part

Why the eye confuses pairs with part

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pairs is \pɛʁ\ while part is \paʁ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pairs is recorded at frequency rank #9,209, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ\. part is at rank #193, tagged as anoun, pronounced \paʁ\.

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 9402, this pair ranks #416,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pairs vs part

Shared letters: apr. Private to "pairs": is. Private to "part": t.

"pairs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "part" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pairsapirs · pairrs · pairss · paisr · piars · ppairs
  • partaprt · parrt · partt · patr · ppart

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pairs" for "part" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pairs" is an adjective and "part" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "pairs" or "part" show up more?
"part" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #193 in our French list, against #9,209 for "pairs". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "pairs" and "part" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pairs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "part" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #416,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pairs" and "part" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pairs vs Pamiers". 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 #416,792 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list