peu vs peux vs peut

Summary

peu is an adverb meaning "little/few" (un peu de, très peu); peux is pouvoir in the first- or second-person singular present (je peux, tu peux); peut is pouvoir in the third-person singular present (il/elle/on peut). All three are pronounced /pø/. Test: if you can replace the word with pouvait (imparfait), it's a verb form (peux/peut, chosen by subject); if you can replace it with its opposite, beaucoup, it's peu. Also distinguish peut-être ("maybe," one fixed word) from il peut être ("he can be").

Explanation

Peu, peux, and peut are all pronounced /pø/, but only two of the three spellings are verb forms — the third is an adverb, and mixing them up is one of the most common spelling slips in written French.

Peu is an adverb meaning "little" or "few." It quantifies a verb, adjective, or noun (with de): il mange peu ("he eats little"), un peu fatigué ("a little tired"), peu de gens ("few people"). Because it is an adverb of quantity, it has a natural opposite: beaucoup ("a lot"). If swapping in beaucoup keeps the sentence grammatical, even if the meaning flips, the word is peu.

Peux and peut are both present-tense forms of the irregular verb pouvoir ("to be able to, can"). Peux is used with je and tu (je peux, tu peux); peut is used with il, elle, and on (il peut, elle peut, on peut). Both are conjugated verb forms, so the reliable test is to replace the word with pouvait, the imparfait of pouvoir: Je peux venir → Je pouvais venir works, confirming a verb form, and the subject (je) tells you it must be spelled peux, not peut.

Because peux and peut are homophones of each other too, the spelling is decided purely by the subject: first- and second-person singular subjects (je, tu) take -x (peux); third-person singular subjects (il, elle, on) take -t (peut). This is the same -x/-t pattern found in other irregular verbs like vouloir (je veux / il veut) and valoir.

A frequent trap is peut-être versus il peut être. Peut-être, written as one hyphenated adverb, means "maybe" or "perhaps" and can stand at the front of a sentence: Peut-être qu'il viendra ("Maybe he'll come"). Il peut être, by contrast, is simply the verb pouvoir followed by the infinitive être, meaning "he can be": Il peut être fatigué ("He can be tired"). Test: if you can drop it and the sentence still holds an independent verb, it's peut + être; if removing it leaves a bare statement with no other verb, it's the adverb peut-être.

Summary: peu is an adverb (swap in beaucoup to test); peux/peut are verb forms of pouvoir (swap in pouvait to test, then let the subject — je/tu vs il/elle/on — decide -x or -t); and peut-être is a single frozen adverb meaning "maybe," distinct from il peut être.

Examples

Il reste un peu de pain sur la table. — There's a little bread left on the table. (peu: adverb of quantity, opposite of beaucoup.)

Je peux t'aider demain si tu veux. — I can help you tomorrow if you want. (peux: pouvoir, first-person singular (je); replaceable by pouvais.)

Elle peut venir, mais elle a très peu de temps. — She can come, but she has very little time. (peut (pouvoir, elle) contrasted with peu (adverb, très peu).)

Peut-être qu'il viendra, mais il peut être en retard. — Maybe he'll come, but he might be late. (peut-être (fixed adverb, "maybe") vs il peut être (pouvoir + infinitive être).)

Tu peux essayer, même si tu as peu de chances. — You can try, even if you have little chance. (peux: pouvoir, second-person singular (tu); peu: adverb before de chances.)

Common mistakes

Related rules

• Expressions of quantity (beaucoup de, un peu de…)
• Present indicative
• Adverbs: formation and position
• Group 3: irregular verbs overview