parvsPtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: par is a preposition, Pt is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“par” is a preposition and “Pt” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28
“par” frequency rank
#14,122
“Pt” frequency rank
14150
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature par Pt
Definition Sert à marquer le mouvement et le passage. Président (titre).

Where the eye mixes par and Pt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
par
2 ch
Pt

Visual trap between par and Pt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: par is \paʁ\ while Pt is \pʁe.zi.dɑ̃\. 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 (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

par is recorded at frequency rank #28, classified as aprep, pronounced \paʁ\. Pt is at rank #14,122, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.zi.dɑ̃\.

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 14150, this pair ranks #397,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of par vs Pt

Shared letters: p. Private to "par": ar. Private to "Pt": t.

"par" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Pt" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "par" for "Pt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "par" is a preposition and "Pt" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "par" or "Pt" show up more?
"par" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28 in our French list, against #14,122 for "Pt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "par" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #397,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "par" and "Pt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs Pt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #397,973 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