Which to use
“piste” and “postes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,963
- “piste” frequency rank
- #2,192
- “postes” frequency rank
- 4155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | piste | postes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Trace qu’a laissée un animal ou un homme sur le sol où il a marché. | Pluriel de poste. |
Where the eye mixes piste and postes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: piste vs postes
A purely visual mix-up. piste (\pist\) and postes (\pɔst\) 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 4155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
piste is recorded at frequency rank #1,963, classified as anoun, pronounced \pist\. postes is at rank #2,192, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔst\.
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 4155, this pair ranks #432,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of piste vs postes
Shared letters: epst. Private to "piste": i. Private to "postes": o.
"piste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "postes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "piste" for "postes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "piste" or "postes"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "piste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "postes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #432,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "piste" and "postes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pontet vs postes". 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 #432,315 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.