Which to use
“pointer” and “poster” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,102
- “pointer” frequency rank
- #5,385
- “poster” frequency rank
- 16487
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pointer | poster |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Affiche dont la fonction est essentiellement décorative, qui n’est pas ou a cessé d’être publicitaire. |
Where the eye mixes pointer and poster
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses pointer with poster
A purely visual mix-up. pointer (\pwɛ̃.tɛʁ\) and poster (\pɔs.tɛʁ\) 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 16487, 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\. poster is at rank #5,385, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.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 16487, this pair ranks #387,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pointer vs poster
Shared letters: eoprt. Private to "pointer": in. Private to "poster": s.
"pointer" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "poster" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pointer" and "poster" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pointer" or "poster" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pointer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poster" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pointer" and "poster" 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 #387,619 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.