piétonsvspitonWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: piétons is a adjective, piton is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#11,099
“piétons” frequency rank
#32,118
“piton” frequency rank
43217
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature piétons piton
Definition Masculin pluriel de piéton. Sorte de clou ou de vis dont la tête est en forme d’anneau.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set piétons and piton apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
piétons
5 ch
piton

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: piétons is \pje.tɔ̃\ while piton is \pi.tɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

piétons is recorded at frequency rank #11,099, classified as anadj, pronounced \pje.tɔ̃\. piton is at rank #32,118, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.tɔ̃\.

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 43217, this pair ranks #219,771 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of piétons vs piton

Shared letters: inopt. Private to "piétons": . Private to "piton": -.

"piétons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "piton" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pitonipton · piotn · pitno · pitonn · pitton · ppiton · ption

Frequency comparison

piétons#11,099
piton#32,118

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "piétons" and "piton" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "piétons" is an adjective and "piton" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "piétons" or "piton"?
"piétons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,099 in our French list, against #32,118 for "piton". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering piétons vs piton

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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