Which to use
“poing” and “potins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,541
- “poing” frequency rank
- #32,124
- “potins” frequency rank
- 38665
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poing | potins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Main fermée. | Pluriel de potin. |
Where the eye mixes poing and potins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. poing runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against potins's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: poing vs potins
A purely visual mix-up. poing (\pwɛ̃\) 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 38665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poing is recorded at frequency rank #6,541, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃\. 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 38665, this pair ranks #253,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poing vs potins
Shared letters: inop. Private to "poing": g. Private to "potins": st.
"poing" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "potins" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poing" for "potins" ever safe?
Which is more common, "poing" or "potins"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "poing" and "potins" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "poing" 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 #253,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poing" 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 #253,670 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.