posezvspouvezConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,354
“posez” frequency rank
#532
“pouvez” frequency rank
7886
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature posez pouvez
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de poser. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de pouvoir.

Where the eye mixes posez and pouvez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
posez
6 ch
pouvez

Look-alike desk: posez vs pouvez

A purely visual mix-up. posez (\po.ze\) and pouvez (\pu.ve\) 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 7886, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

posez is recorded at frequency rank #7,354, classified as averb, pronounced \po.ze\. pouvez is at rank #532, tagged as averb, pronounced \pu.ve\.

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 7886, this pair ranks #421,826 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of posez vs pouvez

Shared letters: eopz. Private to "posez": s. Private to "pouvez": uv.

"posez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pouvez" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • posezopsez · poesz · posezz · possez · posze · pposez · psoez
  • pouvezopuvez · pouevz · pouvezz · pouvvez · pouvze · povuez · ppouvez · puovez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "posez" and "pouvez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\po.ze\ versus \pu.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "posez" vs "pouvez" - which ranks higher?
"pouvez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #532 in our French list, against #7,354 for "posez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "posez" and "pouvez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "posez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pouvez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #421,826 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "posez" and "pouvez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "posez vs Prez". 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 #421,826 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