peintsvspinsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: peints is a adjective, pins is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“peints” is an adjective and “pins” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,755
“peints” frequency rank
#10,922
“pins” frequency rank
25677
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peints pins
Definition Masculin pluriel de peint. Pluriel de pin.

Same sound, different letters: peints vs pins

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

6 ch
peints
4 ch
pins

Same sound, different spelling - peints / pins

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: peints and pins carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɛ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25677, 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\. 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 25677, this pair ranks #339,487 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of peints vs pins

Shared letters: inps. Private to "peints": et. Private to "pins": -.

"peints" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC  ·  "pins" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peintsepints · peinnts · peinst · peintss · peintts · peitns · penits · pients
  • pinsipns · pinns · pinss · pisn · pnis · ppins

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peints" for "pins" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "peints" is an adjective and "pins" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "peints" or "pins" show up more?
"pins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,922 in our French list, against #14,755 for "peints". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peints" 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 #339,487 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peints" and "pins" 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 #339,487 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