Which to use
“pillés” is a verb and “piqués” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,925
- “pillés” frequency rank
- #48,104
- “piqués” frequency rank
- 89029
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pillés | piqués |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin pluriel de piller. | Masculin pluriel de piqué. |
Where the eye mixes pillés and piqués
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pillés (CVCCVC) and piqués (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between pillés and piqués
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pillés is \pi.je\ while piqués is \pi.ke\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pillés is recorded at frequency rank #40,925, classified as averb, pronounced \pi.je\. piqués is at rank #48,104, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pi.ke\.
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 89029, this pair ranks #6,263 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pillés vs piqués
Shared letters: ipsé. Private to "pillés": l. Private to "piqués": qu.
"pillés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "piqués" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pillés" and "piqués" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pillés" vs "piqués" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pillés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piqués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #6,263 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pillés" and "piqués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pieuses vs piqués". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #6,263 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.