polluéesvspolluentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,360
“polluées” frequency rank
#44,103
“polluent” frequency rank
90463
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature polluées polluent
Definition Participe passé féminin pluriel de polluer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de polluer.

Where the eye mixes polluées and polluent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. polluées (CVCCVVVC) and polluent (CVCCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
polluées
8 ch
polluent

Look-alike desk: polluées vs polluent

A purely visual mix-up. polluées (\pɔ.lɥe\) and polluent (\pɔ.ly\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90463, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

polluées is recorded at frequency rank #46,360, classified as averb, pronounced \pɔ.lɥe\. polluent is at rank #44,103, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔ.ly\.

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 90463, this pair ranks #4,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of polluées vs polluent

Shared letters: elopu. Private to "polluées": sé. Private to "polluent": nt.

"polluées" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC  ·  "polluent" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • polluent ← oplluent · ploluent · polleunt · polluennt · polluentt · polluetn · pollunet · poluent

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "polluées" for "polluent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɔ.lɥe\ versus \pɔ.ly\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "polluées" or "polluent"?
"polluent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,103 in our French list, against #46,360 for "polluées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "polluées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "polluent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "polluées" and "polluent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poilues vs polluées". 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 #4,754 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