pourrionsvspourrisWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pourrions is a verb, pourris is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#9,218
“pourrions” frequency rank
#13,034
“pourris” frequency rank
22252
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pourrions pourris
Definition Première personne du pluriel du conditionnel de pouvoir. Masculin pluriel de pourri.

Where the eye mixes pourrions and pourris

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
pourrions
7 ch
pourris

Look-alike desk: pourrions vs pourris

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pourrions is \pu.ʁjɔ̃\ while pourris is \pu.ʁi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22252, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pourrions is recorded at frequency rank #9,218, classified as averb, pronounced \pu.ʁjɔ̃\. pourris is at rank #13,034, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pu.ʁi\.

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 22252, this pair ranks #359,024 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pourrions vs pourris

Shared letters: ioprsu. Private to "pourrions": n. Private to "pourris": -.

"pourrions" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC  ·  "pourris" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pourrionsopurrions · porurions · pourions · pourirons · pourrinos · pourrionns · pourrionss · pourriosn
  • pourrisopurris · poruris · pourirs · pouris · pourriss · pourrsi · ppourris · puorris

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pourrions" and "pourris" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pourrions" is a verb and "pourris" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "pourrions" or "pourris" show up more?
"pourrions" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,218 in our French list, against #13,034 for "pourris". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pourrions" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pourris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #359,024 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pourrions" and "pourris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Polaris vs pourris". 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 #359,024 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