poolvspourWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pool is a noun, pour is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pool” is a noun and “pour” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,408
“pool” frequency rank
#7,799
“pour” frequency rank
13207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pool pour
Definition Ansammlung von (meistens) Süßwasser von einiger Tiefe eingießen, einschenken

Letter map: pool vs pour

Shared letters muted; letters that set pool and pour apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. pool and pour follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
pool
4 ch
pour

Grammar separator: pool vs pour

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pool is anoun and pouraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pool is recorded at frequency rank #5,408, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. pour is at rank #7,799, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɔː].

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 13207, this pair ranks #1,959,418 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pool vs pour

Shared letters: op. Private to "pool": l. Private to "pour": ru.

"pool" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "pour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pool ← opol · pooll · ppool
  • pour ← opur · poru · pourr · ppour · puor

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pool" for "pour" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pool" is a noun and "pour" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "pool" or "pour" show up more?
"pool" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,408 in our German list, against #7,799 for "pour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "pool" and "pour". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pool" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,959,418 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pool" and "pour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pau vs pour". 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 #1,959,418 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list