ponvspondWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#43,075
“pon” frequency rank
#23,316
“pond” frequency rank
66391
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pon pond
Definition Pont. Troisième personne de l’indicatif présent du verbe pondre.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pon and pond apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
pon
4 ch
pond

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pon is anoun and pondaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “pon” sits inside “pond”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pon is recorded at frequency rank #43,075, classified as anoun. pond is at rank #23,316, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔ̃\.

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 66391, this pair ranks #68,028 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pon vs pond

Shared letters: nop. Private to "pon": -. Private to "pond": d.

"pon" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "pond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pondopnd · pnod · podn · pondd · ponnd · ppond

Frequency comparison

pon#43,075
pond#23,316

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pon" and "pond" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pon" is a noun and "pond" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pon" or "pond"?
"pond" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,316 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.

Remembering pon vs pond

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “pon”; for a verb, it's “pond”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pon” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list