Which to use
“peine” and “pins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #483
- “peine” frequency rank
- #10,922
- “pins” frequency rank
- 11405
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peine | pins |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Pluriel de pin. |
Where the eye mixes peine and pins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peine runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against pins's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: peine vs pins
A purely visual mix-up. peine (\pɛn\) and pins (\pɛ̃\) 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 11405, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peine is recorded at frequency rank #483, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛn\. pins is at rank #10,922, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃\.
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 11405, this pair ranks #409,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of peine vs pins
Shared letters: inp. Private to "peine": e. Private to "pins": s.
"peine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "pins" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "peine" for "pins" ever safe?
Frequency check: "peine" vs "pins" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "peine" and "pins" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "peine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #409,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peine" and "pins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pins vs pio". 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 #409,268 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.