Which to use
“pointer” and “pointes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,102
- “pointer” frequency rank
- #9,724
- “pointes” frequency rank
- 20826
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pointer | pointes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Chaussures à pointes. |
Where the eye mixes pointer and pointes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pointer and pointes
A purely visual mix-up. pointer (\pwɛ̃.tɛʁ\) 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 a single letter - r in “pointer” becomes s in “pointes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pointer is recorded at frequency rank #11,102, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃.tɛʁ\. 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 20826, this pair ranks #366,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pointer vs pointes
Shared letters: einopt. Private to "pointer": r. Private to "pointes": s.
"pointer" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "pointes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pointer" for "pointes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pointer" or "pointes"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pointer" 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 #366,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pointer" and "pointes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointer 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 #366,291 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.