pensévspeserWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pensé is a adjective, peser is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pensé” is an adjective and “peser” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,830
“pensé” frequency rank
#8,751
“peser” frequency rank
10581
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pensé peser
Definition Qui est imaginé, conçu. Examiner la pesanteur d’une chose, la rapporter à un poids déterminé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pensé and peser apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
pensé
5 ch
peser

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pensé is \pɑ̃.se\ while peser is \pə.ze\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pensé is recorded at frequency rank #1,830, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\. peser is at rank #8,751, tagged as averb, pronounced \pə.ze\.

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 10581, this pair ranks #412,423 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pensé vs peser

Shared letters: eps. Private to "pensé": . Private to "peser": r.

"pensé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "peser" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peserepser · peesr · peserr · pesre · pesser · ppeser · pseer

Frequency comparison

pensé#1,830
peser#8,751

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pensé" and "peser" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pensé" is an adjective and "peser" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pensé" or "peser"?
"pensé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,830 in our French list, against #8,751 for "peser". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pensé vs peser

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “pensé”; for a verb, it's “peser”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pensé” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list