poidsvspotinsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,071
“poids” frequency rank
#32,124
“potins” frequency rank
33195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poids potins
Definition Force exercée par la pesanteur ; force qui attire les objets vers le sol. Pluriel de potin.

Where the eye mixes poids and potins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
poids
6 ch
potins

Why the eye confuses poids with potins

A purely visual mix-up. poids (\pwa\) and potins (\pɔ.tɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poids is recorded at frequency rank #1,071, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwa\. potins is at rank #32,124, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.tɛ̃\.

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 33195, this pair ranks #292,250 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poids vs potins

Shared letters: iops. Private to "poids": d. Private to "potins": nt.

"poids" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "potins" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poidsopids · piods · podis · poidds · poidss · poisd · ppoids
  • potinsoptins · potinns · potinss · potisn · potnis · pottins · ppotins · ptoins

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poids" for "potins" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pwa\ versus \pɔ.tɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "poids" vs "potins" - which ranks higher?
"poids" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,071 in our French list, against #32,124 for "potins". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "poids" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "potins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #292,250 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poids" and "potins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "potiers vs potins". 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 #292,250 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