piècesvspiquésConfusable pair

Quick tell: pièces is a noun, piqués is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pièces” is a noun and “piqués” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#795
“pièces” frequency rank
#48,104
“piqués” frequency rank
48899
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pièces piqués
Definition Pluriel de pièce. Masculin pluriel de piqué.

Where the eye mixes pièces and piqués

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pièces (CVVCVC) and piqués (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
pièces
6 ch
piqués

Look-alike desk: pièces vs piqués

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pièces is \pjɛs\ while piqués is \pi.ke\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pièces is recorded at frequency rank #795, classified as anoun, pronounced \pjɛs\. piqués is at rank #48,104, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pi.ke\.

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 48899, this pair ranks #175,148 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pièces vs piqués

Shared letters: ips. Private to "pièces": ceè. Private to "piqués": qué.

"pièces" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "piqués" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pièces" and "piqués" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pièces" is a noun and "piqués" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pièces" or "piqués"?
"pièces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #795 in our French list, against #48,104 for "piqués". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pièces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "piqués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,148 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pièces" and "piqués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pieuses vs piqués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #175,148 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