Which to use
“pouces” and “poules” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,126
- “pouces” frequency rank
- #7,882
- “poules” frequency rank
- 14008
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pouces | poules |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pouce. | Pluriel de poule. |
Where the eye mixes pouces and poules
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pouces and poules follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pouces with poules
A purely visual mix-up. pouces (\pus\) and poules (\pul\) 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 - c in “pouces” becomes l in “poules”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14008, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pouces is recorded at frequency rank #6,126, classified as anoun, pronounced \pus\. poules is at rank #7,882, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pul\.
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 14008, this pair ranks #398,594 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pouces vs poules
Shared letters: eopsu. Private to "pouces": c. Private to "poules": l.
"pouces" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "poules" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pouces" and "poules" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pouces" or "poules" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pouces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poules" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,594 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pouces" and "poules" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poilues vs poules". 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 #398,594 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.