poiresvsproiesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#23,649
“poires” frequency rank
#21,121
“proies” frequency rank
44770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poires proies
Definition Pluriel de poire. Pluriel de proie.

Where the eye mixes poires and proies

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poires (CVVCVC) and proies (CCVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
poires
6 ch
proies

Visual trap between poires and proies

A purely visual mix-up. poires (\pwaʁ\) and proies (\pʁwa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poires is recorded at frequency rank #23,649, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwaʁ\. proies is at rank #21,121, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁwa\.

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 44770, this pair ranks #207,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poires vs proies

Shared letters: eioprs. Private to "poires": -. Private to "proies": -.

"poires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "proies" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poiresopires · piores · poiers · poiress · poirres · poirse · ppoires
  • proiespories · pproies · prioes · proeis · proiess · proise · prroies · rpoies

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "poires" and "proies" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pwaʁ\ versus \pʁwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "poires" vs "proies" - which ranks higher?
"proies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,121 in our French list, against #23,649 for "poires". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "poires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "proies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poires" and "proies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poilues vs poires". 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 #207,960 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