poivsponsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,426
“poi” frequency rank
#21,727
“pons” frequency rank
62153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poi pons
Definition Plat polynésien de consistance pâteuse à semi-fluide, mélange de plusieurs fruits ou légumes. Pont.

Letter map: poi vs pons

Shared letters muted; letters that set poi and pons apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. poi runs 3 letters (CVV) against pons's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
poi
4 ch
pons

Corpus notes: poi and pons

poi and pons are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poi is recorded at frequency rank #40,426, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔj\. pons is at rank #21,727, tagged as anoun.

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 62153, this pair ranks #88,588 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of poi vs pons

Shared letters: op. Private to "poi": i. Private to "pons": ns.

"poi" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "pons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pons ← opns · pnos · ponns · ponss · posn · ppons

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "poi" and "pons" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "poi" or "pons"?
"pons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,727 in our French list, against #40,426 for "poi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "poi" vs "pons" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #88,588 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poi" and "pons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs poi". 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 #88,588 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