pètesvspotesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,737
“pètes” frequency rank
#3,488
“potes” frequency rank
52225
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pètes potes
Definition Pluriel de pète. Pluriel de pote.

Where the eye mixes pètes and potes

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

5 ch
pètes
5 ch
potes

Look-alike desk: pètes vs potes

A purely visual mix-up. pètes (\pɛt\) and potes (\pɔt\) 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 a single letter - è in “pètes” becomes o in “potes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52225, 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\. potes is at rank #3,488, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔt\.

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 52225, this pair ranks #149,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pètes vs potes

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

"pètes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "potes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • potesoptes · poets · potess · pottes · ppotes · ptoes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pètes" for "potes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛt\ versus \pɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "pètes" or "potes" show up more?
"potes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,488 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 "potes" 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 "potes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pètes" and "potes" 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 #149,207 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