patatesvspiratésConfusable pair

Quick tell: patates is a noun, piratés is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“patates” is a noun and “piratés” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,859
“patates” frequency rank
#45,228
“piratés” frequency rank
59087
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature patates piratés
Definition Pluriel de patate. Participe passé masculin pluriel de pirater.

Where the eye mixes patates and piratés

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

7 ch
patates
7 ch
piratés

Why the eye confuses patates with piratés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: patates is \pa.tat\ while piratés is \pi.ʁa.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

patates is recorded at frequency rank #13,859, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.tat\. piratés is at rank #45,228, tagged as averb, pronounced \pi.ʁa.te\.

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 59087, this pair ranks #105,143 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of patates vs piratés

Shared letters: apst. Private to "patates": e. Private to "piratés": iré.

"patates" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "piratés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • patatesaptates · paattes · pataets · patatess · patatse · patattes · pattaes · pattates

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "patates" and "piratés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "patates" is a noun and "piratés" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "patates" or "piratés"?
"patates" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,859 in our French list, against #45,228 for "piratés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "patates" and "piratés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "patates" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "piratés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #105,143 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "patates" and "piratés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pintes vs piratés". 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 #105,143 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