PMRvspoorWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: PMR is a noun, poor is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“PMR” is a noun and “poor” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,720
“PMR” frequency rank
#37,976
“poor” frequency rank
86696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature PMR poor
Definition Personne à mobilité réduite ; par exemple, personne qui se déplace en fauteuil roulant. Pauvre, indigent.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set PMR and poor apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
PMR
4 ch
poor

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: PMR is \pe.ɛm.ɛʁ\ while poor is \ˈpʊɹ\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

PMR is recorded at frequency rank #48,720, classified as anoun, pronounced \pe.ɛm.ɛʁ\. poor is at rank #37,976, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈpʊɹ\.

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 86696, this pair ranks #9,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of PMR vs poor

Shared letters: pr. Private to "PMR": m. Private to "poor": o.

"PMR" · 3 letters · shape CCC  ·  "poor" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pooropor · poorr · poro · ppoor

Frequency comparison

PMR#48,720
poor#37,976

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "PMR" and "poor" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "PMR" is a noun and "poor" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "PMR" or "poor"?
"poor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,976 in our French list, against #48,720 for "PMR". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering PMR vs poor

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “PMR”; for an adjective, it's “poor”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “PMR” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list