Which to use
“pillée” and “pollué” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,275
- “pillée” frequency rank
- #30,308
- “pollué” frequency rank
- 79583
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pillée | pollué |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de piller. | Participe passé masculin singulier de polluer. |
Where the eye mixes pillée and pollué
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pillée and pollué follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between pillée and pollué
A purely visual mix-up. pillée (\pi.je\) and pollué (\pɔ.lɥe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79583, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pillée is recorded at frequency rank #49,275, classified as averb, pronounced \pi.je\. pollué is at rank #30,308, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔ.lɥe\.
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 79583, this pair ranks #22,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pillée vs pollué
Shared letters: lpé. Private to "pillée": ei. Private to "pollué": ou.
"pillée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "pollué" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pillée" for "pollué" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "pillée" or "pollué" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "pillée" and "pollué" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pillée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pollué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #22,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pillée" and "pollué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pillée vs Pirée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #22,935 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.