plusvspourWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#31
“plus” frequency rank
#19
“pour” frequency rank
50
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plus pour
Definition Comparatif de beaucoup. On peut l’utiliser avec que. (\plys\) Au motif de ; dans le but de ; afin de ; à destination de.

Where the eye mixes plus and pour

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

4 ch
plus
4 ch
pour

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: plus is \ply\ while pour is \puʁ\. 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 preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plus is recorded at frequency rank #31, classified as anadv, pronounced \ply\. pour is at rank #19, tagged as aprep, pronounced \puʁ\.

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 50, this pair ranks #440,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of plus vs pour

Shared letters: pu. Private to "plus": ls. Private to "pour": or.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pluslpus · pllus · plsu · pluss · pplus · puls
  • pouropur · poru · pourr · ppour · puor

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plus" and "pour" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plus" is an adverb and "pour" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "plus" or "pour"?
"pour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our French list, against #31 for "plus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list