pourquoi

\puʁ.kwa\

/\puʁ.kwa\/ adv

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“pourquoi” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #180. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#180
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pour quelle raison ; dans quelle intention ; pour quelle cause ; pour quelle chose.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pourquoi · pourquoi · French

pourquoi · rank #180 · 10 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-CORE #180
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH plusieurs

Nearest frequency peer: plusieurs (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « pourquoi »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « pourquoi » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

pourquoi vs pourvoi
75% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for pourquoi
PropertyValue
Headwordpourquoi
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\puʁ.kwa\
Letters8
Frequency rank#180
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « pourquoi »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.pourquoise place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « plusieurs » (#179), « ta » (#181), « place » (#178). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pourquoi » est au #180. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around pourquoi (IPA \puʁ.kwa\), anadverb. Corpus frequency is #180 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for pourquoi, with forms such as "opurquoi", "poruquoi", and "pouqruoi". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "pourvoi", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is pourquoi, spelled P-O-U-R-Q-U-O-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pour quelle raison ; dans quelle intention ; pour quelle cause ; pour quelle chose.
  2. 2
    Quelle est la raison.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how pourquoi appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. — Mais, demanda Scaër, vous sembliez craindre tout à l’heure qu'on espionnât ce brave garçon... Pourquoi ?
  2. Pourquoi porter des chapeaux et des vêtements, quand la pigmentation de la peau est la meilleure défense contre le soleil des tropiques […]?

Synonyms

pourquoi c'est fairepourquoi fairequequoi faire

This word in other languages

why(English)por qué(Español)warum(Deutsch)por que(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • opurquoi
  • poruquoi
  • pouqruoi
  • pourqoui
  • pourqquoi
  • pourquio
  • pourrquoi
  • pouruqoi
  • ppourquoi
  • puorquoi

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pourquoi - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

opurquoi2poruquoi2pouqruoi2pourqoui2pourqquoi1pourquio2pourrquoi1pouruqoi2
Edit distance from "pourquoi"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pourquoi"?
"pourquoi" is spelled P-O-U-R-Q-U-O-I. The IPA pronunciation is \puʁ.kwa\.
What does "pourquoi" mean?
As an adverb, "pourquoi" means: Pour quelle raison ; dans quelle intention ; pour quelle cause ; pour quelle chose.
What words are commonly confused with "pourquoi"?
"pourquoi" is commonly confused with "pourvoi". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pourquoi"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pourquoi" is \puʁ.kwa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pourquoi" come from?
"pourquoi" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pourquoi", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

histoire#186nouvelle#192première#165personne#149

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

travail10 variantspremier10 variantsbeaucoup10 variantsétaient10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list