pourriesvspourrirTell them apart

Quick tell: pourries is a adjective, pourrir is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pourries” is an adjective and “pourrir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,656
“pourries” frequency rank
#13,871
“pourrir” frequency rank
36527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pourries pourrir
Definition Féminin pluriel de pourri. Se décomposer, fermenter, s'altérer, se corrompre, se gâter sous l’action de bactéries.

Where the eye mixes pourries and pourrir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. pourries runs 8 letters (CVVCCVVC) against pourrir's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
pourries
7 ch
pourrir

Visual trap between pourries and pourrir

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pourries is \pu.ʁi\ while pourrir is \pu.ʁiʁ\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pourries is recorded at frequency rank #22,656, classified as anadj, pronounced \pu.ʁi\. pourrir is at rank #13,871, tagged as averb, pronounced \pu.ʁiʁ\.

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 36527, this pair ranks #268,984 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pourries vs pourrir

Shared letters: iopru. Private to "pourries": es. Private to "pourrir": -.

"pourries" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC  ·  "pourrir" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pourriesopurries · poruries · pouries · pourires · pourreis · pourriess · pourrise · ppourries
  • pourriropurrir · porurir · pourirr · pourrirr · pourrri · ppourrir · puorrir

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pourries" and "pourrir" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pourries" is an adjective and "pourrir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pourries" or "pourrir"?
"pourrir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,871 in our French list, against #22,656 for "pourries". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pourries" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pourrir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #268,984 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pourries" and "pourrir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pourpres vs pourries". 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 #268,984 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