Which to use
“potable” and “potache” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,217
- “potable” frequency rank
- #49,864
- “potache” frequency rank
- 57081
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | potable | potache |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Que l'on peut boire sans danger pour la santé, ou sans répugnance. | Qui a les caractéristiques des collégiens, des lycéens, en particulier relativement à l’humour. |
Where the eye mixes potable and potache
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between potable and potache
A purely visual mix-up. potable (\pɔ.tabl\) and potache (\pɔ.taʃ\) 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 57081, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
potable is recorded at frequency rank #7,217, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.tabl\. potache is at rank #49,864, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.taʃ\.
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 57081, this pair ranks #117,152 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of potable vs potache
Shared letters: aeopt. Private to "potable": bl. Private to "potache": ch.
"potable" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "potache" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "potable" and "potache" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "potable" or "potache" show up more?
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 "potable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "potache" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #117,152 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "potable" and "potache" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pistache vs potache". 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 #117,152 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.