pétrivsptiTell them apart

Quick tell: pétri is a verb, pti is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#40,945
“pétri” frequency rank
#34,701
“pti” frequency rank
75646
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pétri pti
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe pétrir. Petit.

Letter map: pétri vs pti

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

5 ch
pétri
3 ch
pti

Role in the sentence - pétri and pti

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pétri is averb and ptianadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75646, 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\. pti is at rank #34,701, tagged as anadj.

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 75646, this pair ranks #33,447 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pétri vs pti

Shared letters: ipt. Private to "pétri": ré. Private to "pti": -.

"pétri" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pti" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pétri" for "pti" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pétri" is a verb and "pti" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pétri" vs "pti" - which ranks higher?
"pti" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,701 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 "pti" 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 "pti" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,447 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pétri" and "pti" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pètes vs pétri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #33,447 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