Which to use
“pattes” and “pintes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,881
- “pattes” frequency rank
- #44,096
- “pintes” frequency rank
- 48977
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pattes | pintes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de patte. | Pluriel de pinte. |
Where the eye mixes pattes and pintes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pattes and pintes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pattes with pintes
A purely visual mix-up. pattes (\pat\) and pintes (\pɛ̃t\) 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 48977, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pattes is recorded at frequency rank #4,881, classified as anoun, pronounced \pat\. pintes is at rank #44,096, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃t\.
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 48977, this pair ranks #174,509 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pattes vs pintes
Shared letters: epst. Private to "pattes": a. Private to "pintes": in.
"pattes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pintes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pattes" for "pintes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pattes" or "pintes"?
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 "pattes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pintes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #174,509 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pattes" and "pintes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pintes vs pontet". 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 #174,509 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.