pognonvspotionTell them apart

Which to use

“pognon” and “potion” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,460
“pognon” frequency rank
#20,243
“potion” frequency rank
35703
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pognon potion
Definition Argent, monnaie. Remède liquide, que l’on administre généralement par cuillerées.

Where the eye mixes pognon and potion

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pognon (CVCCVC) and potion (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
pognon
6 ch
potion

Look-alike desk: pognon vs potion

A purely visual mix-up. pognon (\pɔ.ɲɔ̃\) and potion (\pɔ.sjɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pognon is recorded at frequency rank #15,460, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.ɲɔ̃\. potion is at rank #20,243, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.sjɔ̃\.

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 35703, this pair ranks #274,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pognon vs potion

Shared letters: nop. Private to "pognon": g. Private to "potion": it.

"pognon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "potion" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pognon ← opgnon · pgonon · poggnon · pognno · pognnon · pognonn · pogonn · pongon
  • potion ← poiton · potino · potionn · potoin · pottion · ppotion · ptoion

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pognon" and "potion" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɔ.ɲɔ̃\ versus \pɔ.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pognon" or "potion"?
"pognon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,460 in our French list, against #20,243 for "potion". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pognon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "potion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #274,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pognon" and "potion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "potion vs potiron". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #274,844 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