piècevsPilleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#852
“pièce” frequency rank
#39,457
“Pille” frequency rank
40309
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pièce Pille
Definition Chacun des éléments d’un ensemble défini. → voir pièce détachée, de toutes pièces, juger sur pièces, pièce à pièce et pièce par pièce Pilule, forme pharmaceutique en forme de petite boule.

Where the eye mixes pièce and Pille

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pièce
5 ch
Pille

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pièce (\pjɛs\) and Pille (\ˈpɪlə\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pièce is recorded at frequency rank #852, classified as anoun, pronounced \pjɛs\. Pille is at rank #39,457, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɪlə\.

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 40309, this pair ranks #241,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pièce vs Pille

Shared letters: eip. Private to "pièce": . Private to "Pille": l.

"pièce" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Pille" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Pilleiplle · pilel · plile · ppille

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pièce" and "Pille" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pjɛs\ versus \ˈpɪlə\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pièce" or "Pille"?
"pièce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #852 in our French list, against #39,457 for "Pille". 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 "pièce" and "Pille". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pièce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #241,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pièce" and "Pille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pille vs pillée". 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list