pieuvspigWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,470
“pieu” frequency rank
#43,600
“pig” frequency rank
70070
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pieu pig
Definition Pièce de bois qui est pointue par un des bouts et qu’on emploie à divers usages. Sanglier, n’importe quelle espèce appartenant au genre Sus.

Where the eye mixes pieu and pig

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pieu runs 4 letters (CVVV) against pig's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pieu
3 ch
pig

Why the eye confuses pieu with pig

A purely visual mix-up. pieu (\pjø\) and pig (\pɪɡ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pieu is recorded at frequency rank #26,470, classified as anoun, pronounced \pjø\. pig is at rank #43,600, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɪɡ\.

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 70070, this pair ranks #52,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pieu vs pig

Shared letters: ip. Private to "pieu": eu. Private to "pig": g.

"pieu" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "pig" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pieu ← ipeu · peiu · piue · ppieu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pieu" for "pig" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pjø\ versus \pɪɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "pieu" or "pig" show up more?
"pieu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,470 in our French list, against #43,600 for "pig". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "pieu" and "pig" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pieu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pieu" and "pig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pig vs pio". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #52,762 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