pellevspullWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,631
“pelle” frequency rank
#8,135
“pull” frequency rank
19766
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pelle pull
Definition Outil constitué d’une plaque mince, généralement en métal, avec ou sans rebords et souvent courbe et dont l’extrémité peut être plus ou moins arrondie, muni d’un manche en bois plus ou moins long. Cet outil est utilisé pour déplacer de la terre, du sable, des gravillons, de la neige, du charbon… ou pour remuer des matières pâteuses comme la boue, le mortier…. Pull-over.

Where the eye mixes pelle and pull

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pelle
4 ch
pull

Look-alike desk: pelle vs pull

A purely visual mix-up. pelle (\pɛl\) and pull (\pyl\) 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 19766, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pelle is recorded at frequency rank #11,631, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛl\. pull is at rank #8,135, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pyl\.

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 19766, this pair ranks #371,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pelle vs pull

Shared letters: lp. Private to "pelle": e. Private to "pull": u.

"pelle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pull" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pelleeplle · pele · pelel · plele · ppelle
  • pullplul · ppull · pul · upll

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pelle" for "pull" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛl\ versus \pyl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "pelle" or "pull" show up more?
"pull" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,135 in our French list, against #11,631 for "pelle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pelle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pull" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #371,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pelle" and "pull" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paella vs pelle". 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 #371,662 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