pâturevspictureWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,495
“pâture” frequency rank
#27,908
“picture” frequency rank
57403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pâture picture
Definition Nourriture des bêtes, des oiseaux, des poissons. Image.

Where the eye mixes pâture and picture

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pâture runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against picture's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pâture
7 ch
picture

Look-alike desk: pâture vs picture

A purely visual mix-up. pâture (\pa.tyʁ\) and picture (\ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\) 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 57403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pâture is recorded at frequency rank #29,495, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.tyʁ\. picture is at rank #27,908, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\.

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 57403, this pair ranks #115,248 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pâture vs picture

Shared letters: eprtu. Private to "pâture": â. Private to "picture": ci.

"pâture" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "picture" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picture ← ipcture · pciture · piccture · pictrue · pictture · pictuer · picturre · picutre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pâture" and "picture" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pa.tyʁ\ versus \ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pâture" vs "picture" - which ranks higher?
"picture" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,908 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pâture" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "picture" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,248 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pâture" and "picture" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pictural vs picture". 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 #115,248 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