phasevspuiséConfusable pair

Quick tell: phase is a noun, puisé is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“phase” is a noun and “puisé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,783
“phase” frequency rank
#32,135
“puisé” frequency rank
33918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature phase puisé
Definition États successifs par lesquels passent certains phénomènes de la vie, de l’histoire. Participe passé masculin singulier de puiser.

Where the eye mixes phase and puisé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
phase
5 ch
puisé

Look-alike desk: phase vs puisé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: phase is \fɑz\ while puisé is \pɥi.ze\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33918, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

phase is recorded at frequency rank #1,783, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɑz\. puisé is at rank #32,135, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɥi.ze\.

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 33918, this pair ranks #287,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of phase vs puisé

Shared letters: ps. Private to "phase": aeh. Private to "puisé": iué.

"phase" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "puisé" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • phasehpase · pahse · phaes · phasse · phhase · phsae · pphase

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "phase" for "puisé" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "phase" is a noun and "puisé" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "phase" or "puisé" show up more?
"phase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,783 in our French list, against #32,135 for "puisé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "phase" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puisé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "phase" and "puisé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "priée vs puisé". 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 #287,398 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