ponvsPTTConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#43,075
“pon” frequency rank
#40,940
“PTT” frequency rank
84015
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pon PTT
Definition Pont. Ancienne administration proposant des services de poste, télégraphe et téléphone.

Letter map: pon vs PTT

Shared letters muted; letters that set pon and PTT apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. pon (CVC) and PTT (CCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
pon
3 ch
PTT

Role in the sentence - pon and PTT

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pon is anoun and PTTaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pon is recorded at frequency rank #43,075, classified as anoun. PTT is at rank #40,940, tagged as aname, pronounced \pe.te.te\.

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 84015, this pair ranks #13,745 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pon vs PTT

Shared letters: p. Private to "pon": no. Private to "PTT": t.

"pon" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "PTT" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pon" for "PTT" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pon" is a noun and "PTT" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "pon" or "PTT" show up more?
"PTT" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,940 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "PTT" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,745 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pon" and "PTT" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pon". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #13,745 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