Which to use
“pics” is a noun and “près” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,441
- “pics” frequency rank
- #294
- “près” frequency rank
- 12735
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pics | près |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pic. | À petite distance, à proximité. |
Where the eye mixes pics and près
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses pics with près
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pics is \pik\ while près is \pʁɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12735, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pics is recorded at frequency rank #12,441, classified as anoun, pronounced \pik\. près is at rank #294, tagged as anadv, pronounced \pʁɛ\.
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 12735, this pair ranks #403,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pics vs près
Shared letters: ps. Private to "pics": ci. Private to "près": rè.
"pics" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "près" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pics ← ipcs · pcis · piccs · picss · pisc · ppics
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pics" for "près" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pics" vs "près" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pics" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "près" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #403,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pics" and "près" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pics vs pio". 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 #403,983 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.