poisvspuigWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,891
“pois” frequency rank
#43,094
“puig” frequency rank
52985
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes pois and puig

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pois and puig follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
pois
4 ch
puig

Visual trap between pois and puig

A purely visual mix-up. pois (\pwa\) and puig (\ˈput͡ʃ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52985, 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\. puig is at rank #43,094, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈput͡ʃ\.

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 52985, this pair ranks #143,893 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pois vs puig

Shared letters: ip. Private to "pois": os. Private to "puig": gu.

"pois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "puig" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poisopis · pios · poiss · posi · ppois
  • puigpiug · ppuig · pugi · puigg · upig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pois" for "puig" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pwa\ versus \ˈput͡ʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "pois" or "puig" show up more?
"pois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,891 in our French list, against #43,094 for "puig". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,893 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pois" and "puig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs puig". 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 #143,893 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