pâturagevspâtureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,311
“pâturage” frequency rank
#29,495
“pâture” frequency rank
57806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pâturage pâture
Definition Lieu couvert d’herbe où les bestiaux pâturent. Nourriture des bêtes, des oiseaux, des poissons.

Where the eye mixes pâturage and pâture

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. pâturage runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against pâture's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
pâturage
6 ch
pâture

Look-alike desk: pâturage vs pâture

A purely visual mix-up. pâturage (\pɑ.ty.ʁaʒ\) and pâture (\pa.tyʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pâturage is recorded at frequency rank #28,311, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑ.ty.ʁaʒ\. pâture is at rank #29,495, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.tyʁ\.

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 57806, this pair ranks #112,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pâturage vs pâture

Shared letters: eprtuâ. Private to "pâturage": ag. Private to "pâture": -.

"pâturage" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "pâture" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pâturage" and "pâture" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɑ.ty.ʁaʒ\ versus \pa.tyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pâturage" vs "pâture" - which ranks higher?
"pâturage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,311 in our French list, against #29,495 for "pâture". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pâturage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pâture" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pâturage" and "pâture" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parures vs pâture". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #112,856 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