Which to use
“pond” and “pondre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,316
- “pond” frequency rank
- #22,035
- “pondre” frequency rank
- 45351
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pond | pondre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne de l’indicatif présent du verbe pondre. | Faire, déposer un ou des œufs. |
Where the eye mixes pond and pondre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pond runs 4 letters (CVCC) against pondre's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: pond vs pondre
A purely visual mix-up. pond (\pɔ̃\) and pondre (\pɔ̃dʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “pond” sits inside “pondre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pond is recorded at frequency rank #23,316, classified as averb, pronounced \pɔ̃\. pondre is at rank #22,035, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔ̃dʁ\.
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 45351, this pair ranks #203,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pond vs pondre
Shared letters: dnop. Private to "pond": -. Private to "pondre": er.
"pond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pondre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pond" for "pondre" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pond" or "pondre"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pond" and "pondre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pond" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pondre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #203,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pond" and "pondre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pogo vs pond". 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 #203,361 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.