parleurvspasteurWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“parleur” and “pasteur” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,785
“parleur” frequency rank
#5,376
“pasteur” frequency rank
23161
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parleur pasteur
Definition Celui qui parle beaucoup, qui parle trop. Berger ; pâtre. — Ne se dit qu’en parlant des peuples anciens et dans le style poétique.

Where the eye mixes parleur and pasteur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
parleur
7 ch
pasteur

Visual trap between parleur and pasteur

A purely visual mix-up. parleur (\paʁ.lœʁ\) and pasteur (\pas.tœʁ\) 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 23161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parleur is recorded at frequency rank #17,785, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʁ.lœʁ\. pasteur is at rank #5,376, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pas.tœʁ\.

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 23161, this pair ranks #354,020 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parleur vs pasteur

Shared letters: aepru. Private to "parleur": l. Private to "pasteur": st.

"parleur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "pasteur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parleuraprleur · palreur · parelur · parleru · parleurr · parlleur · parluer · parrleur
  • pasteurapsteur · pasetur · passteur · pasteru · pasteurr · pastteur · pastuer · patseur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "parleur" and "pasteur" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.lœʁ\ versus \pas.tœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "parleur" vs "pasteur" - which ranks higher?
"pasteur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,376 in our French list, against #17,785 for "parleur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parleur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pasteur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #354,020 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parleur" and "pasteur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parlers vs parleur". 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 #354,020 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