PierrevspiqûreWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Pierre is a name, piqûre is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Pierre” is a name and “piqûre” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#427
“Pierre” frequency rank
#18,280
“piqûre” frequency rank
18707
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pierre piqûre
Definition Nom de famille. Petite blessure que fait une chose ou un animal qui pique.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Pierre and piqûre apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
Pierre
6 ch
piqûre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pierre is \pjɛʁ\ while piqûre is \pi.kyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18707, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pierre is recorded at frequency rank #427, classified as aname, pronounced \pjɛʁ\. piqûre is at rank #18,280, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.kyʁ\.

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 18707, this pair ranks #376,966 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Pierre vs piqûre

Shared letters: eipr. Private to "Pierre": -. Private to "piqûre": .

"Pierre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "piqûre" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Pierreiperre · peirre · piere · pierer · pirere · ppierre

Frequency comparison

Pierre#427
piqûre#18,280

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Pierre" and "piqûre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pierre" is a name and "piqûre" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Pierre" or "piqûre"?
"Pierre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #427 in our French list, against #18,280 for "piqûre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering Pierre vs piqûre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a name, it's “Pierre”; for a noun, it's “piqûre”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Pierre” 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