pètesvspostesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,737
“pètes” frequency rank
#2,192
“postes” frequency rank
50929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pètes postes
Definition Pluriel de pète. Pluriel de poste.

Where the eye mixes pètes and postes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pètes
6 ch
postes

Visual trap between pètes and postes

A purely visual mix-up. pètes (\pɛt\) and postes (\pɔst\) 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 50929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pètes is recorded at frequency rank #48,737, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛt\. postes is at rank #2,192, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔst\.

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 50929, this pair ranks #158,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pètes vs postes

Shared letters: epst. Private to "pètes": è. Private to "postes": o.

"pètes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "postes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • postesopstes · posets · posstes · postess · postse · posttes · potses · ppostes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pètes" for "postes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛt\ versus \pɔst\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pètes" or "postes"?
"postes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,192 in our French list, against #48,737 for "pètes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pètes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "postes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pètes" and "postes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs pètes". 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 #158,847 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