pègrevspiégéeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#41,988
“pègre” frequency rank
#19,629
“piégée” frequency rank
61617
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pègre piégée
Definition Catégorie des gens sans aveu qui vivent de friponnerie ou d’escroquerie. Participe passé féminin singulier de piéger.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pègre and piégée apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
pègre
6 ch
piégée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pègre is \pɛɡʁ\ while piégée is \pje.ʒe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pègre is recorded at frequency rank #41,988, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛɡʁ\. piégée is at rank #19,629, tagged as averb, pronounced \pje.ʒe\.

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 61617, this pair ranks #91,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pègre vs piégée

Shared letters: egp. Private to "pègre": . Private to "piégée": .

"pègre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "piégée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Frequency comparison

pègre#41,988
piégée#19,629

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pègre" and "piégée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pègre" is a noun and "piégée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pègre" or "piégée"?
"piégée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,629 in our French list, against #41,988 for "pègre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pègre vs piégée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “pègre”; for a verb, it's “piégée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pègre” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list