ponduvsponeyTell them apart

Which to use

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

#30,311
“pondu” frequency rank
#15,461
“poney” frequency rank
45772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pondu poney
Definition Feuille de manioc Cheval de petite taille (adulte moins de 1,49 m de hauteur au garrot), au trot rapide et sec, servant maintenant surtout pour l'agrément, souvent cheval de loisir, cheval de selle ou cheval polyvalent.

Where the eye mixes pondu and poney

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pondu (CVCCV) and poney (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
pondu
5 ch
poney

Visual trap between pondu and poney

A purely visual mix-up. pondu (\pɔn.dy\) and poney (\pɔ.nɛ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pondu is recorded at frequency rank #30,311, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔn.dy\. poney is at rank #15,461, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.nɛ\.

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 45772, this pair ranks #200,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pondu vs poney

Shared letters: nop. Private to "pondu": du. Private to "poney": ey.

"pondu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "poney" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ponduopndu · pnodu · podnu · ponddu · ponndu · ponud · ppondu
  • poneyopney · pnoey · poeny · poneyy · ponney · ponye · pponey

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pondu" and "poney" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɔn.dy\ versus \pɔ.nɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pondu" or "poney"?
"poney" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,461 in our French list, against #30,311 for "pondu". 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 "pondu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poney" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pondu" and "poney" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pon vs pondu". 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 #200,157 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