pondrevsponteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#22,035
“pondre” frequency rank
#18,831
“ponte” frequency rank
40866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pondre ponte
Definition Faire, déposer un ou des œufs. Action de pondre, pondaison.

Where the eye mixes pondre and ponte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pondre runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against ponte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pondre
5 ch
ponte

Why the eye confuses pondre with ponte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pondre is \pɔ̃dʁ\ while ponte is \pɔ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pondre is recorded at frequency rank #22,035, classified as averb, pronounced \pɔ̃dʁ\. ponte is at rank #18,831, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ̃t\.

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 40866, this pair ranks #237,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pondre vs ponte

Shared letters: enop. Private to "pondre": dr. Private to "ponte": t.

"pondre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "ponte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pondre ← opndre · pnodre · podnre · ponddre · ponder · pondrre · ponndre · ponrde
  • ponte ← opnte · pnote · ponet · ponnte · pontte · potne · pponte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pondre" and "ponte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pondre" is a verb and "ponte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pondre" or "ponte"?
"ponte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,831 in our French list, against #22,035 for "pondre". 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 "pondre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ponte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #237,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pondre" and "ponte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ponte vs pontet". 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 #237,320 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