Which to use
“potable” is an adjective and “potasse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,217
- “potable” frequency rank
- #42,536
- “potasse” frequency rank
- 49753
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | potable | potasse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Que l'on peut boire sans danger pour la santé, ou sans répugnance. | Potasse caustique ; matière solide, blanche, très caustique, soluble dans l’eau. Hydroxyde de potassium (KOH). |
Where the eye mixes potable and potasse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. potable and potasse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses potable with potasse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: potable is \pɔ.tabl\ while potasse is \pɔ.tas\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49753, 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\. potasse is at rank #42,536, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.tas\.
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 49753, this pair ranks #168,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of potable vs potasse
Shared letters: aeopt. Private to "potable": bl. Private to "potasse": s.
"potable" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "potasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "potable" and "potasse" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "potable" or "potasse" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "potable" and "potasse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "potable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "potasse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #168,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "potable" and "potasse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "potache vs potasse". 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 #168,089 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.