pathvspetWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,109
“path” frequency rank
#12,638
“pet” frequency rank
44747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature path pet
Definition Sentier, chemin, voie. Vent, gaz qui sort du corps par l’anus avec ou sans bruit.

Where the eye mixes path and pet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
path
3 ch
pet

Look-alike desk: path vs pet

A purely visual mix-up. path (\pɑːθ\) and pet (\pɛ\) 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 44747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

path is recorded at frequency rank #32,109, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑːθ\. pet is at rank #12,638, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ\.

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 44747, this pair ranks #208,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of path vs pet

Shared letters: pt. Private to "path": ah. Private to "pet": e.

"path" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pet" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pathapth · paht · pathh · patth · ppath · ptah

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "path" for "pet" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɑːθ\ versus \pɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "path" or "pet"?
"pet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,638 in our French list, against #32,109 for "path". 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 "path" and "pet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "path" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #208,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "path" and "pet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "path vs PTZ". 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 #208,134 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