ponevsposseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“pone” and “posse” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#857
“pone” frequency rank
#42,630
“posse” frequency rank
43487
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pone posse
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de poner. Infinitivo presente activo de possum.

Where the eye mixes pone and posse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pone
5 ch
posse

Look-alike desk: pone vs posse

A purely visual mix-up. pone ([ˈpone]) and posse ([ˈpɔs.sɛ]) 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 43487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pone is recorded at frequency rank #857, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpone]. posse is at rank #42,630, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpɔs.sɛ].

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 43487, this pair ranks #142,363 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pone vs posse

Shared letters: eop. Private to "pone": n. Private to "posse": s.

"pone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "posse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poneopne · pnoe · poen · ponne · ppone
  • posseopsse · posce · poses · pposse · psose

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pone" and "posse" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpone] versus [ˈpɔs.sɛ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pone" vs "posse" - which ranks higher?
"pone" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #857 in our Spanish list, against #42,630 for "posse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pone" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "posse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #142,363 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pone" and "posse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poso vs posse". 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 #142,363 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list