Which to use
“peine” is a noun and “peinte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #483
- “peine” frequency rank
- #17,223
- “peinte” frequency rank
- 17706
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peine | peinte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Punition, sanction ou châtiment infligé(e) pour une faute commise, pour un acte jugé répréhensible ou coupable, et en particulier punition pour une infraction à la loi et prononcée par un jugement. | Féminin singulier de peint. |
Where the eye mixes peine and peinte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. peine runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against peinte's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: peine vs peinte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peine is \pɛn\ while peinte is \pɛ̃t\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peine is recorded at frequency rank #483, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛn\. peinte is at rank #17,223, tagged as anadj, 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 17706, this pair ranks #381,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of peine vs peinte
Shared letters: einp. Private to "peine": -. Private to "peinte": t.
"peine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "peinte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "peine" for "peinte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "peine" or "peinte"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "peine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "peinte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #381,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peine" and "peinte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peins vs peinte". 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 #381,862 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.