Which to use
“pointée” is an adjective and “pointer” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,528
- “pointée” frequency rank
- #11,102
- “pointer” frequency rank
- 43630
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pointée | pointer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de pointé. | Race de grand chien d’arrêt britannique, originaire d’Angleterre, au stop bien marqué, à queue droite et effilée, à poil court, à robe unicolore ou bicolore. |
Where the eye mixes pointée and pointer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: pointée vs pointer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pointée is \pwɛ̃.te\ while pointer is \pwɛ̃.tɛʁ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pointée is recorded at frequency rank #32,528, classified as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.te\. pointer is at rank #11,102, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃.tɛʁ\.
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 43630, this pair ranks #216,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pointée vs pointer
Shared letters: einopt. Private to "pointée": é. Private to "pointer": r.
"pointée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "pointer" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pointer ← opinter · pionter · poinetr · poinnter · pointerr · pointre · pointter · poitner
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pointée" for "pointer" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "pointée" or "pointer" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pointée" and "pointer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pointée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pointer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #216,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pointée" and "pointer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointée 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 #216,593 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.