poèmesvsposésConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#6,870
“poèmes” frequency rank
#11,460
“posés” frequency rank
18330
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poèmes posés
Definition Pluriel de poème. Masculin pluriel de posé.

Where the eye mixes poèmes and posés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. poèmes runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against posés's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
poèmes
5 ch
posés

Why the eye confuses poèmes with posés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poèmes is \pɔ.ɛm\ while posés is \po.ze\. 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 18330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poèmes is recorded at frequency rank #6,870, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.ɛm\. posés is at rank #11,460, tagged as anadj, pronounced \po.ze\.

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 18330, this pair ranks #378,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of poèmes vs posés

Shared letters: ops. Private to "poèmes": emè. Private to "posés": é.

"poèmes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "posés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poèmes" for "posés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "poèmes" is a noun and "posés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "poèmes" or "posés" show up more?
"poèmes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,870 in our French list, against #11,460 for "posés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "poèmes" and "posés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poèmes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "posés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #378,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poèmes" and "posés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pètes vs posés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #378,876 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list