Which to use
“pourrie” is an adjective and “poutre” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,220
- “pourrie” frequency rank
- #15,725
- “poutre” frequency rank
- 27945
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pourrie | poutre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de pourri. | Pièce de bois de forme allongée, servant dans les constructions à supporter une charpente ou un parquet. |
Where the eye mixes pourrie and poutre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pourrie runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against poutre's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: pourrie vs poutre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pourrie is \pu.ʁi\ while poutre is \putʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pourrie is recorded at frequency rank #12,220, classified as anadj, pronounced \pu.ʁi\. poutre is at rank #15,725, tagged as anoun, pronounced \putʁ\.
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 27945, this pair ranks #325,815 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pourrie vs poutre
Shared letters: eopru. Private to "pourrie": i. Private to "poutre": t.
"pourrie" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "poutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pourrie" and "poutre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pourrie" or "poutre" 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 "pourrie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poutre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #325,815 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pourrie" and "poutre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poulie vs poutre". 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 #325,815 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.