pétrivsPetrusWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pétri is a verb, Petrus is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pétri” is a verb and “Petrus” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,945
“pétri” frequency rank
#40,419
“Petrus” frequency rank
81364
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pétri Petrus
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe pétrir. Pierre.

Letter map: pétri vs Petrus

Shared letters muted; letters that set pétri and Petrus apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. pétri runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Petrus's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
pétri
6 ch
Petrus

Role in the sentence - pétri and Petrus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pétri is averb and Petrusanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81364, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pétri is recorded at frequency rank #40,945, classified as averb, pronounced \pe.tʁi\. Petrus is at rank #40,419, tagged as anoun.

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 81364, this pair ranks #18,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pétri vs Petrus

Shared letters: prt. Private to "pétri": ié. Private to "Petrus": esu.

"pétri" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Petrus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Petrus ← eptrus · pertus · petrrus · petrsu · petruss · pettrus · peturs · ppetrus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pétri" for "Petrus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pétri" is a verb and "Petrus" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pétri" or "Petrus"?
"Petrus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,419 in our French list, against #40,945 for "pétri". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "pétri" vs "Petrus" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pétri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Petrus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pétri" and "Petrus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pètes vs pétri". 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 #18,915 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