PostvspourConfusable pair

Quick tell: Post is a name, pour is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Post” is a name and “pour” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,966
“Post” frequency rank
#19
“pour” frequency rank
1985
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Post pour
Definition Nom de famille allemand, néerlandais. Au motif de ; dans le but de ; afin de ; à destination de.

Where the eye mixes Post and pour

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Post
4 ch
pour

Why the eye confuses Post with pour

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Post is \pɔst\ while pour is \puʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1985, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Post is recorded at frequency rank #1,966, classified as aname, pronounced \pɔst\. pour is at rank #19, tagged as aprep, pronounced \puʁ\.

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 1985, this pair ranks #436,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Post vs pour

Shared letters: op. Private to "Post": st. Private to "pour": ru.

"Post" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Postopst · posst · postt · ppost · psot
  • pouropur · poru · pourr · ppour · puor

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Post" and "pour" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Post" is a name and "pour" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Post" or "pour"?
"pour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our French list, against #1,966 for "Post". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Post" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Post" and "pour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peso vs Post". 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 #436,999 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