petit vs puit, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#171
“petit” frequency rank: #41,476
“puit” frequency rank: 41647
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	petit	puit
Definition	De taille réduite.	Variante orthographique de puits.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

petit

4 ch

puit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: petit is \pə.ti\ while puit is \pɥi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41647, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

petit is recorded at frequency rank #171, classified as anadj, pronounced \pə.ti\. puit is at rank #41,476, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɥi\.

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 41647, this pair ranks #231,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of petit vs puit

Shared letters: ipt. Private to "petit": e. Private to "puit": u.

"petit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "puit" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

petit ← eptit · peitt · petitt · petti · pettit · ppetit · pteit
puit ← piut · ppuit · puitt · puti · upit

Frequency comparison

petit#171

puit#41,476

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "petit" and "puit" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "petit" is an adjective and "puit" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "petit" or "puit"?

"petit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #171 in our French list, against #41,476 for "puit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering petit vs puit

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “petit”; for a noun, it's “puit”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “petit” entry
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