Which to use
“poursuite” is a noun and “poursuivez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,634
- “poursuite” frequency rank
- #43,079
- “poursuivez” frequency rank
- 46713
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poursuite | poursuivez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de celui ou de celle qui poursuit un homme ou un animal, qui court après pour l’atteindre, pour le prendre. | Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de poursuivre. |
Where the eye mixes poursuite and poursuivez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. poursuite runs 9 letters (CVVCCVVCV) against poursuivez's 10 (CVVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses poursuite with poursuivez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poursuite is \puʁ.sɥit\ while poursuivez is \puʁ.sɥi.ve\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46713, 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\. poursuivez is at rank #43,079, tagged as averb, pronounced \puʁ.sɥi.ve\.
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 46713, this pair ranks #192,718 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poursuite vs poursuivez
Shared letters: eioprsu. Private to "poursuite": t. Private to "poursuivez": vz.
"poursuite" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCV · "poursuivez" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- poursuite ← opursuite · porusuite · pourrsuite · poursiute · pourssuite · poursuiet · poursuitte · poursutie
- poursuivez ← opursuivez · porusuivez · pourrsuivez · poursiuvez · pourssuivez · poursuievz · poursuivezz · poursuivvez
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "poursuite" and "poursuivez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "poursuite" or "poursuivez" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "poursuite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poursuivez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #192,718 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poursuite" and "poursuivez" 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 #192,718 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.