peut vs pur, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#70
“peut” frequency rank: #3,034
“pur” frequency rank: 3104
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	peut	pur
Definition	Sale, mauvais, méchant.	Qui est sans mélange, en parlant d’un produit, d’une émotion.

Where the eye mixes peut and pur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch

peut

3 ch

pur

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. peut (\pøt\) and pur (\pyʁ\) 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 3104, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peut is recorded at frequency rank #70, classified as anadj, pronounced \pøt\. pur is at rank #3,034, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pyʁ\.

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 3104, this pair ranks #434,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of peut vs pur

Shared letters: pu. Private to "peut": et. Private to "pur": r.

"peut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "pur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

peut ← eput · petu · peutt · ppeut · puet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "peut" and "pur" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\pøt\ versus \pyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "peut" or "pur"?

"peut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #70 in our French list, against #3,034 for "pur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "peut" and "pur". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "peut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "pur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #434,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"peut" and "pur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pur". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.