Which to use
“pèsent” and “puisent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,775
- “pèsent” frequency rank
- #44,119
- “puisent” frequency rank
- 58894
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pèsent | puisent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de peser. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de puiser. |
Where the eye mixes pèsent and puisent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: pèsent vs puisent
A purely visual mix-up. pèsent (\pɛz\) and puisent (\pɥiz\) 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 58894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pèsent is recorded at frequency rank #14,775, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛz\. puisent is at rank #44,119, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɥiz\.
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 58894, this pair ranks #106,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pèsent vs puisent
Shared letters: enpst. Private to "pèsent": è. Private to "puisent": iu.
"pèsent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "puisent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- puisent ← piusent · ppuisent · puiesnt · puisennt · puisentt · puisetn · puisnet · pusient
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pèsent" and "puisent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pèsent" or "puisent" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pèsent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "puisent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #106,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pèsent" and "puisent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plient vs puisent". 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 #106,274 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.