plusvspoisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: plus is a adverb, pois is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“plus” is an adverb and “pois” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31
“plus” frequency rank
#9,891
“pois” frequency rank
9922
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plus pois
Definition Comparatif de beaucoup. On peut l’utiliser avec que. (\plys\) Chacune des graines, de forme ronde, et enfermées dans une cosse verte, d’une espèce de fabacée (légumineuse) papilionacée.

Where the eye mixes plus and pois

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

4 ch
plus
4 ch
pois

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: plus is \ply\ while pois is \pwa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9922, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plus is recorded at frequency rank #31, classified as anadv, pronounced \ply\. pois is at rank #9,891, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwa\.

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 9922, this pair ranks #414,921 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of plus vs pois

Shared letters: ps. Private to "plus": lu. Private to "pois": io.

"plus" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "pois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pluslpus · pllus · plsu · pluss · pplus · puls
  • poisopis · pios · poiss · posi · ppois

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plus" and "pois" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plus" is an adverb and "pois" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "plus" or "pois"?
"plus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31 in our French list, against #9,891 for "pois". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list