Which to use
“poursuit” and “poussait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,096
- “poursuit” frequency rank
- #22,980
- “poussait” frequency rank
- 26076
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poursuit | poussait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de poursuivre. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de pousser. |
Where the eye mixes poursuit and poussait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. poursuit and poussait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses poursuit with poussait
A purely visual mix-up. poursuit (\puʁ.sɥi\) and poussait (\pu.sɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poursuit is recorded at frequency rank #3,096, classified as averb, pronounced \puʁ.sɥi\. poussait is at rank #22,980, tagged as averb, pronounced \pu.sɛ\.
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 26076, this pair ranks #337,242 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of poursuit vs poussait
Shared letters: iopstu. Private to "poursuit": r. Private to "poussait": a.
"poursuit" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC · "poussait" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "poursuit" and "poussait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "poursuit" or "poussait" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "poursuit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poussait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #337,242 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poursuit" and "poussait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poussait vs pousserait". 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 #337,242 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.