piedsvspiégésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pieds is a noun, piégés is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pieds” is a noun and “piégés” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,006
“pieds” frequency rank
#25,767
“piégés” frequency rank
26773
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pieds piégés
Definition Pluriel de pied. Participe passé masculin pluriel de piéger.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pieds and piégés apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
pieds
6 ch
piégés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pieds is \pje\ while piégés is \pje.ʒe\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pieds is recorded at frequency rank #1,006, classified as anoun, pronounced \pje\. piégés is at rank #25,767, tagged as averb, pronounced \pje.ʒe\.

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 26773, this pair ranks #332,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pieds vs piégés

Shared letters: ips. Private to "pieds": de. Private to "piégés": .

"pieds" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "piégés" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • piedsipeds · peids · pides · piedds · piedss · piesd · ppieds

Frequency comparison

pieds#1,006
piégés#25,767

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pieds" and "piégés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pieds" is a noun and "piégés" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pieds" or "piégés"?
"pieds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,006 in our French list, against #25,767 for "piégés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering pieds vs piégés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “pieds”; for a verb, it's “piégés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pieds” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list