pontvspostsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,452
“pont” frequency rank
#15,215
“posts” frequency rank
16667
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pont posts
Definition Construction élevée d’un bord à l’autre d’une rivière, d’un ruisseau, d’un fossé pour permettre de les traverser. Pluriel de post.

Where the eye mixes pont and posts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pont
5 ch
posts

Why the eye confuses pont with posts

A purely visual mix-up. pont (\pɔ̃\) and posts (\pɔst\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16667, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pont is recorded at frequency rank #1,452, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ̃\. posts is at rank #15,215, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔst\.

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 16667, this pair ranks #386,805 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pont vs posts

Shared letters: opt. Private to "pont": n. Private to "posts": s.

"pont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "posts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pontopnt · pnot · ponnt · pontt · potn · ppont
  • postsopsts · possts · postss · postts · pposts · psots

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pont" and "posts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɔ̃\ versus \pɔst\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pont" vs "posts" - which ranks higher?
"pont" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,452 in our French list, against #15,215 for "posts". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pont" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "posts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #386,805 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pont" and "posts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plots vs posts". 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 #386,805 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