Which to use
“picture” is a noun and “piètre” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,908
- “picture” frequency rank
- #18,828
- “piètre” frequency rank
- 46736
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | picture | piètre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Image. | Qui est mesquin, chétif ou insignifiant. |
Where the eye mixes picture and piètre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. picture runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against piètre's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between picture and piètre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: picture is \ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\ while piètre is \pjɛtʁ\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
picture is recorded at frequency rank #27,908, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\. piètre is at rank #18,828, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pjɛtʁ\.
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 46736, this pair ranks #192,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of picture vs piètre
Shared letters: eiprt. Private to "picture": cu. Private to "piètre": è.
"picture" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "piètre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- picture ← ipcture · pciture · piccture · pictrue · pictture · pictuer · picturre · picutre
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "picture" for "piètre" ever safe?
Which is more common, "picture" or "piètre"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "picture" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piètre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #192,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "picture" and "piètre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pictural vs picture". 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 #192,529 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.