Which to use
“poireau” and “préau” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,256
- “poireau” frequency rank
- #45,809
- “préau” frequency rank
- 80065
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poireau | préau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Légume à feuilles longues et vertes, cultivées pour son pied blanc comestible. | Petit pré. |
Where the eye mixes poireau and préau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. poireau runs 7 letters (CVVCVVV) against préau's 5 (CCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses poireau with préau
A purely visual mix-up. poireau (\pwa.ʁo\) and préau (\pʁe.o\) 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 80065, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poireau is recorded at frequency rank #34,256, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwa.ʁo\. préau is at rank #45,809, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.o\.
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 80065, this pair ranks #21,813 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of poireau vs préau
Shared letters: apru. Private to "poireau": eio. Private to "préau": é.
"poireau" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVV · "préau" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- poireau ← opireau · pioreau · poierau · poiraeu · poireua · poirreau · porieau · ppoireau
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "poireau" and "préau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "poireau" vs "préau" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "poireau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "préau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,813 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poireau" and "préau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "préau vs prep". 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 #21,813 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.