pansvsponWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pans” and “pon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,630
“pans” frequency rank
#43,075
“pon” frequency rank
55705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pans pon
Definition Pluriel de pan. Pont.

Letter map: pans vs pon

Shared letters muted; letters that set pans and pon apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
pans
3 ch
pon

Pair insight - pans / pon

pans and pon are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pans is recorded at frequency rank #12,630, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑ̃\. pon is at rank #43,075, tagged as anoun.

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 55705, this pair ranks #125,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pans vs pon

Shared letters: np. Private to "pans": as. Private to "pon": o.

"pans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pon" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pansapns · panns · panss · pasn · pnas · ppans

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pans" for "pon" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "pans" vs "pon" - which ranks higher?
"pans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,630 in our French list, against #43,075 for "pon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pans" and "pon".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #125,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pans" and "pon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pon". 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 #125,739 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list