Which to use
“poignée” is a noun and “pointée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,382
- “poignée” frequency rank
- #32,528
- “pointée” frequency rank
- 37910
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poignée | pointée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Quantité de matière qu’on peut prendre dans une main. | Féminin singulier de pointé. |
Where the eye mixes poignée and pointée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. poignée and pointée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses poignée with pointée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poignée is \pwa.ɲe\ while pointée is \pwɛ̃.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poignée is recorded at frequency rank #5,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwa.ɲe\. pointée is at rank #32,528, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.te\.
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 37910, this pair ranks #259,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poignée vs pointée
Shared letters: einopé. Private to "poignée": g. Private to "pointée": t.
"poignée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "pointée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poignée" for "pointée" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "poignée" or "pointée" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "poignée" and "pointée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "poignée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pointée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poignée" and "pointée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointée vs pontet". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #259,106 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.