pointsvspotsTell them apart

Which to use

“points” and “pots” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#494
“points” frequency rank
#8,442
“pots” frequency rank
8936
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature points pots
Definition Pluriel de point. Pluriel de pot.

Where the eye mixes points and pots

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
points
4 ch
pots

Look-alike desk: points vs pots

A purely visual mix-up. points (\pwɛ̃\) and pots (\po\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

points is recorded at frequency rank #494, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃\. pots is at rank #8,442, tagged as anoun, pronounced \po\.

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 8936, this pair ranks #418,354 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of points vs pots

Shared letters: opst. Private to "points": in. Private to "pots": -.

"points" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC  ·  "pots" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pointsopints · pionts · poinnts · poinst · pointss · pointts · poitns · ponits
  • potsopts · potss · potts · ppots · ptos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "points" for "pots" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pwɛ̃\ versus \po\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "points" or "pots"?
"points" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #494 in our French list, against #8,442 for "pots". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "points" and "pots" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "points" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pots" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,354 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "points" and "pots" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pivots vs pots". 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 #418,354 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list