Which to use
“poursuite” is a noun and “poursuive” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,634
- “poursuite” frequency rank
- #36,538
- “poursuive” frequency rank
- 40172
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poursuite | poursuive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de celui ou de celle qui poursuit un homme ou un animal, qui court après pour l’atteindre, pour le prendre. | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de poursuivre. |
Where the eye mixes poursuite and poursuive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between poursuite and poursuive
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poursuite is \puʁ.sɥit\ while poursuive is \puʁ.sɥiv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - t in “poursuite” becomes v in “poursuive”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40172, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poursuite is recorded at frequency rank #3,634, classified as anoun, pronounced \puʁ.sɥit\. poursuive is at rank #36,538, tagged as averb, pronounced \puʁ.sɥiv\.
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 40172, this pair ranks #242,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poursuite vs poursuive
Shared letters: eioprsu. Private to "poursuite": t. Private to "poursuive": v.
"poursuite" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCV · "poursuive" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "poursuite" and "poursuive" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "poursuite" or "poursuive" 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 "poursuite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poursuive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #242,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poursuite" and "poursuive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poursuive vs poursuivez". 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 #242,480 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.