pieusesvspiqûresWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,855
“pieuses” frequency rank
#21,112
“piqûres” frequency rank
70967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pieuses piqûres
Definition Féminin pluriel de pieux. Pluriel de piqûre.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch
pieuses
7 ch
piqûres

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pieuses is \pjøz\ while piqûres is \pi.kyʁ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pieuses is recorded at frequency rank #49,855, classified as anadj, pronounced \pjøz\. piqûres is at rank #21,112, 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 70967, this pair ranks #49,314 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pieuses vs piqûres

Shared letters: eips. Private to "pieuses": u. Private to "piqûres": qrû.

"pieuses" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCVC  ·  "piqûres" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pieusesipeuses · peiuses · piesues · pieuess · pieusess · pieusses · piueses · ppieuses

Frequency comparison

pieuses#49,855
piqûres#21,112

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pieuses" and "piqûres" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pieuses" is an adjective and "piqûres" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pieuses" or "piqûres"?
"piqûres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,112 in our French list, against #49,855 for "pieuses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pieuses vs piqûres

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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