Which to use
“point” and “pointes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #217
- “point” frequency rank
- #9,724
- “pointes” frequency rank
- 9941
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | point | pointes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de piquer dans un tissu avec une aiguille enfilée ou résultat de cette action, piqûre. | Chaussures à pointes. |
Where the eye mixes point and pointes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between point and pointes
A purely visual mix-up. point (\pwɛ̃\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “point” sits inside “pointes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
point is recorded at frequency rank #217, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃\. 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 9941, this pair ranks #414,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of point vs pointes
Shared letters: inopt. Private to "point": -. Private to "pointes": es.
"point" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "pointes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "point" and "pointes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "point" vs "pointes" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "point" and "pointes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "point" 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 #414,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "point" 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 #414,842 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.