poisvsponWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,891
“pois” frequency rank
#43,075
“pon” frequency rank
52966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pois pon
Definition Chacune des graines, de forme ronde, et enfermées dans une cosse verte, d’une espèce de fabacée (légumineuse) papilionacée. Pont.

Letter map: pois vs pon

Shared letters muted; letters that set pois and pon apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. pois runs 4 letters (CVVC) against pon's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pois
3 ch
pon

Corpus notes: pois and pon

pois and pon are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pois is recorded at frequency rank #9,891, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwa\. pon is at rank #43,075, tagged as anoun.

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 52966, this pair ranks #144,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pois vs pon

Shared letters: op. Private to "pois": is. Private to "pon": n.

"pois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "pon" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poisopis · pios · poiss · posi · ppois

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pois" and "pon" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "pois" vs "pon" - which ranks higher?
"pois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,891 in our French list, against #43,075 for "pon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "pois" vs "pon" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #144,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pois" and "pon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pon". 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 #144,040 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