pollensvspolluésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pollens is a noun, pollués is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pollens” is a noun and “pollués” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,427
“pollens” frequency rank
#40,931
“pollués” frequency rank
81358
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pollens pollués
Definition Pluriel de pollen. Participe passé masculin pluriel de polluer.

Where the eye mixes pollens and pollués

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
pollens
7 ch
pollués

Why the eye confuses pollens with pollués

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pollens is \pɔ.lɛn\ while pollués is \pɔ.lɥe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81358, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pollens is recorded at frequency rank #40,427, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.lɛn\. pollués is at rank #40,931, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔ.lɥe\.

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 81358, this pair ranks #18,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pollens vs pollués

Shared letters: lops. Private to "pollens": en. Private to "pollués": .

"pollens" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "pollués" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pollensopllens · plolens · polelns · polens · pollenns · pollenss · pollesn · pollnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pollens" and "pollués" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pollens" is a noun and "pollués" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pollens" or "pollués"?
"pollens" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,427 in our French list, against #40,931 for "pollués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pollens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pollués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pollens" and "pollués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poilues vs pollués". 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 #18,922 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