piècevsprêtéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#852
“pièce” frequency rank
#6,129
“prêté” frequency rank
6981
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pièce prêté
Definition Chacun des éléments d’un ensemble défini. → voir pièce détachée, de toutes pièces, juger sur pièces, pièce à pièce et pièce par pièce Objet d'un prêt.

Where the eye mixes pièce and prêté

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

5 ch
pièce
5 ch
prêté

Look-alike desk: pièce vs prêté

A purely visual mix-up. pièce (\pjɛs\) and prêté (\pʁɛ.te\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pièce is recorded at frequency rank #852, classified as anoun, pronounced \pjɛs\. prêté is at rank #6,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛ.te\.

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 6981, this pair ranks #424,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pièce vs prêté

Shared letters: p. Private to "pièce": ceiè. Private to "prêté": rtéê.

"pièce" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "prêté" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pièce" for "prêté" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pjɛs\ versus \pʁɛ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "pièce" or "prêté" show up more?
"pièce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #852 in our French list, against #6,129 for "prêté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pièce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prêté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #424,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pièce" and "prêté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs prêté". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #424,619 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