postervspostierConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,385
“poster” frequency rank
#48,117
“postier” frequency rank
53502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poster postier
Definition Affiche dont la fonction est essentiellement décorative, qui n’est pas ou a cessé d’être publicitaire. Agent, employé du service des postes.

Where the eye mixes poster and postier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
poster
7 ch
postier

Visual trap between poster and postier

A purely visual mix-up. poster (\pɔs.tɛʁ\) and postier (\pɔs.tje\) 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 53502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poster is recorded at frequency rank #5,385, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.tɛʁ\. postier is at rank #48,117, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.tje\.

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 53502, this pair ranks #140,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poster vs postier

Shared letters: eoprst. Private to "poster": -. Private to "postier": i.

"poster" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "postier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • posteropster · posetr · posster · posterr · postre · postter · potser · pposter
  • postieropstier · positer · posstier · posteir · postierr · postire · posttier · potsier

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "poster" and "postier" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɔs.tɛʁ\ versus \pɔs.tje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "poster" or "postier" show up more?
"poster" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,385 in our French list, against #48,117 for "postier". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "poster" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "postier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #140,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poster" and "postier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "postier vs potiers". 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 #140,274 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