pointuesvspointusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,331
“pointues” frequency rank
#25,768
“pointus” frequency rank
50099
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pointues pointus
Definition Féminin pluriel de pointu. Masculin pluriel de pointu.

Same sound, different letters: pointues vs pointus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

8 ch
pointues
7 ch
pointus

Same sound, different spelling - pointues / pointus

This is the hard kind. pointues and pointus are pronounced identically (\pwɛ̃.ty\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50099, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pointues is recorded at frequency rank #24,331, classified as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.ty\. pointus is at rank #25,768, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.ty\.

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 50099, this pair ranks #165,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pointues vs pointus

Shared letters: inopstu. Private to "pointues": e. Private to "pointus": -.

"pointues" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC  ·  "pointus" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pointuesopintues · piontues · poinntues · pointeus · pointtues · pointuess · pointuse · poinutes
  • pointusopintus · piontus · poinntus · pointsu · pointtus · pointuss · poinuts · poitnus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pointues" and "pointus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pwɛ̃.ty\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "pointues" vs "pointus" - which ranks higher?
"pointues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,331 in our French list, against #25,768 for "pointus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "pointues" / "pointus". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pointues" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pointus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pointues" and "pointus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poilues vs pointues". 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 #165,333 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