peintsvspetitsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,755
“peints” frequency rank
#587
“petits” frequency rank
15342
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peints petits
Definition Masculin pluriel de peint. Masculin pluriel de petit.

Where the eye mixes peints and petits

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
peints
6 ch
petits

Look-alike desk: peints vs petits

A purely visual mix-up. peints (\pɛ̃\) and petits (\pə.ti\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15342, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peints is recorded at frequency rank #14,755, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛ̃\. petits is at rank #587, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pə.ti\.

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 15342, this pair ranks #392,774 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of peints vs petits

Shared letters: eipst. Private to "peints": n. Private to "petits": -.

"peints" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC  ·  "petits" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peintsepints · peinnts · peinst · peintss · peintts · peitns · penits · pients
  • petitseptits · peitts · petist · petitss · petitts · pettis · pettits · ppetits

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "peints" and "petits" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛ̃\ versus \pə.ti\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "peints" or "petits"?
"petits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #587 in our French list, against #14,755 for "peints". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "peints" and "petits" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peints" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "petits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #392,774 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peints" and "petits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peins vs peints". 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 #392,774 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