peintesvspointuesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“peintes” and “pointues” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,364
“peintes” frequency rank
#24,331
“pointues” frequency rank
43695
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peintes pointues
Definition Féminin pluriel de peint. Féminin pluriel de pointu.

Where the eye mixes peintes and pointues

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

7 ch
peintes
8 ch
pointues

Look-alike desk: peintes vs pointues

A purely visual mix-up. peintes (\pɛ̃t\) and pointues (\pwɛ̃.ty\) 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 43695, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peintes is recorded at frequency rank #19,364, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛ̃t\. pointues is at rank #24,331, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.ty\.

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 43695, this pair ranks #216,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of peintes vs pointues

Shared letters: einpst. Private to "peintes": -. Private to "pointues": ou.

"peintes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "pointues" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peintes ← epintes · peinets · peinntes · peintess · peintse · peinttes · peitnes · penites
  • pointues ← opintues · piontues · poinntues · pointeus · pointtues · pointuess · pointuse · poinutes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peintes" for "pointues" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛ̃t\ versus \pwɛ̃.ty\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "peintes" vs "pointues" - which ranks higher?
"peintes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,364 in our French list, against #24,331 for "pointues". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "peintes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pointues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peintes" and "pointues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poilues vs pointues". 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 #216,149 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