Which to use
“pincée” is a noun and “pointée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,080
- “pincée” frequency rank
- #32,528
- “pointée” frequency rank
- 61608
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pincée | pointée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qu’on peut prendre de certaines choses, en les pinçant entre deux ou trois doigts. | Féminin singulier de pointé. |
Where the eye mixes pincée and pointée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pincée and pointée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pincée is \pɛ̃.se\ while pointée is \pwɛ̃.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pincée is recorded at frequency rank #29,080, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃.se\. pointée is at rank #32,528, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.te\.
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 61608, this pair ranks #91,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pincée vs pointée
Shared letters: einpé. Private to "pincée": c. Private to "pointée": ot.
"pincée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "pointée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pincée" for "pointée" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "pincée" or "pointée" show up more?
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 "pincée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pointée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #91,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pincée" and "pointée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointée vs pontet". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #91,374 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.