partievspartsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#160
“partie” frequency rank
#4,431
“parts” frequency rank
4591
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partie parts
Definition Portion d’un tout, morceau d’un ensemble. Pluriel de part.

Where the eye mixes partie and parts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
partie
5 ch
parts

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. partie (\paʁ.ti\) and parts (\paʁ\) 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 4591, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partie is recorded at frequency rank #160, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʁ.ti\. parts is at rank #4,431, 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 4591, this pair ranks #431,222 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of partie vs parts

Shared letters: aprt. Private to "partie": ei. Private to "parts": s.

"partie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "parts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partieaprtie · parite · parrtie · partei · parttie · ppartie · pratie
  • partsaprts · parrts · parst · partss · partts · patrs · pparts · prats

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "partie" and "parts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.ti\ versus \paʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "partie" or "parts"?
"partie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #160 in our French list, against #4,431 for "parts". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list