pistervspostezTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,454
“pister” frequency rank
#30,747
“postez” frequency rank
72201
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pister postez
Definition Suivre les traces d’un animal. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de poster.

Where the eye mixes pister and postez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pister and postez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
pister
6 ch
postez

Why the eye confuses pister with postez

A purely visual mix-up. pister (\pis.te\) and postez (\pɔs.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72201, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pister is recorded at frequency rank #41,454, classified as averb, pronounced \pis.te\. postez is at rank #30,747, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔs.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 72201, this pair ranks #44,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pister vs postez

Shared letters: epst. Private to "pister": ir. Private to "postez": oz.

"pister" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "postez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pister ← ipster · pisetr · pisster · pisterr · pistre · pistter · pitser · ppister
  • postez ← opstez · posetz · posstez · postezz · posttez · postze · potsez · ppostez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pister" for "postez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pis.te\ versus \pɔs.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pister" or "postez"?
"postez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,747 in our French list, against #41,454 for "pister". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pister" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "postez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pister" and "postez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pister vs postier". 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 #44,838 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