potevspotsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,294
“pote” frequency rank
#8,442
“pots” frequency rank
10736
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pote pots
Definition Copain (copine), ami(e). Pluriel de pot.

Where the eye mixes pote and pots

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pote
4 ch
pots

Visual trap between pote and pots

A purely visual mix-up. pote (\pɔt\) and pots (\po\) 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 a single letter - e in “pote” becomes s in “pots”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pote is recorded at frequency rank #2,294, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔt\. pots is at rank #8,442, tagged as anoun, pronounced \po\.

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 10736, this pair ranks #411,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pote vs pots

Shared letters: opt. Private to "pote": e. Private to "pots": s.

"pote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pots" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poteopte · poet · potte · ppote · ptoe
  • potsopts · potss · potts · ppots · ptos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pote" and "pots" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɔt\ versus \po\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pote" or "pots"?
"pote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,294 in our French list, against #8,442 for "pots". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pote" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pots" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #411,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pote" and "pots" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pivots vs pots". 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 #411,839 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