Which to use
“poules” and “poulies” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,882
- “poules” frequency rank
- #40,932
- “poulies” frequency rank
- 48814
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poules | poulies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de poule. | Pluriel de poulie. |
Where the eye mixes poules and poulies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. poules runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against poulies's 7 (CVVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between poules and poulies
A purely visual mix-up. poules (\pul\) and poulies (\pu.li\) 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 48814, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poules is recorded at frequency rank #7,882, classified as anoun, pronounced \pul\. poulies is at rank #40,932, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pu.li\.
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 48814, this pair ranks #175,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poules vs poulies
Shared letters: elopsu. Private to "poules": -. Private to "poulies": i.
"poules" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "poulies" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "poules" and "poulies" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "poules" or "poulies" show up more?
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 "poules" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poulies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #175,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poules" and "poulies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poulies vs pouliot". 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 #175,834 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.