Which to use
“poignées” and “pointes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,114
- “poignées” frequency rank
- #9,724
- “pointes” frequency rank
- 30838
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poignées | pointes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de poignée. | Chaussures à pointes. |
Where the eye mixes poignées and pointes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. poignées runs 8 letters (CVVCCVVC) against pointes's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses poignées with pointes
A purely visual mix-up. poignées (\pwa.ɲe\) and pointes (\pwɛ̃t\) 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 30838, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poignées is recorded at frequency rank #21,114, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwa.ɲe\. pointes is at rank #9,724, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃t\.
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 30838, this pair ranks #307,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poignées vs pointes
Shared letters: einops. Private to "poignées": gé. Private to "pointes": t.
"poignées" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC · "pointes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pointes ← opintes · piontes · poinets · poinntes · pointess · pointse · pointtes · poitnes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poignées" for "pointes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "poignées" or "pointes"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "poignées" and "pointes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "poignées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pointes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #307,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poignées" and "pointes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointes vs pontet". 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 #307,665 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.