pût

\py\

/\py\/ verb

The verdict

“pût” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #36,553) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#36,553
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du subjonctif du verbe pouvoir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-put · pût · French

pût · rank #36,553 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #36,553
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pêcheries

Nearest frequency peer: pêcheries (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « pût »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « pût » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

pût vs PV
0% similar
pût vs Py
0% similar
pût vs px
33% similar

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

Key facts for pût
PropertyValue
Headwordpût
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\py\
Letters3
Frequency rank#36,553
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « pût »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.pûtse 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 « pêcheries » (#36,552), « pédaler » (#36,551), « rachats » (#36,555). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pût » est au #36,553. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for pût is neighbouring look-alikes ("PV", "Py", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced \py\. Frequency #36,553 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Gloss: "Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du subjonctif du verbe pouvoir.".

pût has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PV", "Py", "px", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is pût, spelled P-Û-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du subjonctif du verbe pouvoir.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Ce gentilhomme, cadet d’un cadet, vivait sur le bien de sa femme, petite terre située près de Barbezieux, qu’il exploitait à merveille en allant vendre son blé au marché, brûlant lui-même son vin, et se moquant des railleries pourvu qu’il entassât des écus, et que de temps en temps il pût amplifier son domaine.
  2. Il se retourna pour regarder de mon côté, mais je me rejetai en arrière, afin qu’il ne pût me voir.

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 "pût"?
"pût" is spelled P-Û-T. The IPA pronunciation is \py\.
What does "pût" mean?
As a verb, "pût" means: Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du subjonctif du verbe pouvoir.
What words are commonly confused with "pût"?
"pût" is commonly confused with "PV", "Py", "px". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pût"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pût" is \py\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pût" come from?
"pût" 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 "pût", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list