Which to use
“parlé” and “pire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,272
- “parlé” frequency rank
- #659
- “pire” frequency rank
- 1931
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | parlé | pire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Utilisé quand on parle (par opposition à littéraire). | Comparatif de mauvais. Plus mauvais, plus défectueux, plus nuisible. |
Where the eye mixes parlé and pire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. parlé runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against pire's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between parlé and pire
A purely visual mix-up. parlé (\paʁ.le\) and pire (\piʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1931, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
parlé is recorded at frequency rank #1,272, classified as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.le\. pire is at rank #659, tagged as anadj, pronounced \piʁ\.
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 1931, this pair ranks #437,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of parlé vs pire
Shared letters: pr. Private to "parlé": alé. Private to "pire": ei.
"parlé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pire ← ipre · pirre · ppire · prie
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "parlé" and "pire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "parlé" vs "pire" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "parlé" and "pire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "parlé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "parlé" and "pire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pire vs prep". 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 #437,103 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.