plusvspouWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#31
“plus” frequency rank
#13,869
“pou” frequency rank
13900
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plus pou
Definition Comparatif de beaucoup. On peut l’utiliser avec que. (\plys\) Très petit insecte parasite sans ailes qui s’attache à plusieurs espèces d’animaux dont l’humain, agent de phtiriase et pouvant transmettre des maladies.

Where the eye mixes plus and pou

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

4 ch
plus
3 ch
pou

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: plus is \ply\ while pou is \pu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plus is recorded at frequency rank #31, classified as anadv, pronounced \ply\. pou is at rank #13,869, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pu\.

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 13900, this pair ranks #399,041 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of plus vs pou

Shared letters: pu. Private to "plus": ls. Private to "pou": o.

"plus" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "pou" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pluslpus · pllus · plsu · pluss · pplus · puls

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plus" and "pou" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plus" is an adverb and "pou" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "plus" or "pou"?
"plus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31 in our French list, against #13,869 for "pou". 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