Which to use
“parue” is a verb and “pire” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,857
- “parue” frequency rank
- #659
- “pire” frequency rank
- 14516
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | parue | pire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de paraître (ou paraitre). | Comparatif de mauvais. Plus mauvais, plus défectueux, plus nuisible. |
Where the eye mixes parue and pire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. parue runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against pire's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between parue and pire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parue is \pa.ʁy\ while pire is \piʁ\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14516, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
parue is recorded at frequency rank #13,857, classified as averb, pronounced \pa.ʁy\. 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 14516, this pair ranks #396,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of parue vs pire
Shared letters: epr. Private to "parue": au. Private to "pire": i.
"parue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "pire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "parue" for "pire" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "parue" or "pire" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "parue" 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 #396,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "parue" and "pire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parue vs prude". 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 #396,331 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.