peinsvspengWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: peins is a verb, peng is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“peins” is a verb and “peng” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,098
“peins” frequency rank
#42,514
“peng” frequency rank
90612
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peins peng
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de peindre. Bang, coup de fusil.

Where the eye mixes peins and peng

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peins runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against peng's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
peins
4 ch
peng

Why the eye confuses peins with peng

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peins is \pɛ̃\ while peng is \pɛŋ\. 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 intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90612, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peins is recorded at frequency rank #48,098, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛ̃\. peng is at rank #42,514, tagged as anintj, pronounced \pɛŋ\.

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 90612, this pair ranks #4,626 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peins vs peng

Shared letters: enp. Private to "peins": is. Private to "peng": g.

"peins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "peng" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peins ← epins · peinns · peinss · peisn · piens · ppeins
  • peng ← epng · pegn · pengg · penng · pneg · ppeng

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peins" for "peng" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "peins" is a verb and "peng" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "peins" or "peng"?
"peng" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,514 in our French list, against #48,098 for "peins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "peng" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,626 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peins" and "peng" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peins vs pètes". 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 #4,626 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