peindrevspeintresConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#7,607
“peindre” frequency rank
#8,904
“peintres” frequency rank
16511
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peindre peintres
Definition Enduire ou couvrir de peinture, de couleur ou de pigments. Pluriel de peintre.

Where the eye mixes peindre and peintres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. peindre runs 7 letters (CVVCCCV) against peintres's 8 (CVVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
peindre
8 ch
peintres

Visual trap between peindre and peintres

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peindre is \pɛ̃dʁ\ while peintres is \pɛ̃tʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peindre is recorded at frequency rank #7,607, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛ̃dʁ\. peintres is at rank #8,904, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃tʁ\.

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 16511, this pair ranks #387,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of peindre vs peintres

Shared letters: einpr. Private to "peindre": d. Private to "peintres": st.

"peindre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV  ·  "peintres" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peindre ← epindre · peidnre · peinddre · peinder · peindrre · peinndre · peinrde · penidre
  • peintres ← epintres · peinntres · peinrtes · peinters · peintress · peintrres · peintrse · peinttres

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peindre" for "peintres" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "peindre" is a verb and "peintres" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "peindre" or "peintres" show up more?
"peindre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,607 in our French list, against #8,904 for "peintres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "peindre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "peintres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #387,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peindre" and "peintres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peintres vs pintes". 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 #387,514 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