privsptsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#26,137
“pri” frequency rank
#13,041
“pts” frequency rank
39178
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pri pts
Definition Argile, glaise. Pluriel de pᵗ.

Where the eye mixes pri and pts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
pri
3 ch
pts

Visual trap between pri and pts

A purely visual mix-up. pri (\ˈpriː\) and pts (\pɔ̃\) 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 39178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pri is recorded at frequency rank #26,137, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈpriː\. pts is at rank #13,041, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ̃\.

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 39178, this pair ranks #249,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pri vs pts

Shared letters: p. Private to "pri": ir. Private to "pts": st.

"pri" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "pts" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pri" for "pts" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈpriː\ versus \pɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pri" or "pts"?
"pts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,041 in our French list, against #26,137 for "pri". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "pri" and "pts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #249,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pri" and "pts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs pri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #249,920 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