Which to use
“poursuivants” is a noun and “poursuivons” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,681
- “poursuivants” frequency rank
- #30,314
- “poursuivons” frequency rank
- 64995
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poursuivants | poursuivons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de poursuivant. | Première personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de poursuivre. |
Where the eye mixes poursuivants and poursuivons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. poursuivants runs 12 letters (CVVCCVVCVCCC) against poursuivons's 11 (CVVCCVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between poursuivants and poursuivons
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poursuivants is \puʁ.sɥi.vɑ̃\ while poursuivons is \puʁ.sɥi.vɔ̃\. 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 64995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poursuivants is recorded at frequency rank #34,681, classified as anoun, pronounced \puʁ.sɥi.vɑ̃\. poursuivons is at rank #30,314, tagged as averb, pronounced \puʁ.sɥi.vɔ̃\.
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 64995, this pair ranks #74,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of poursuivants vs poursuivons
Shared letters: inoprsuv. Private to "poursuivants": at. Private to "poursuivons": -.
"poursuivants" · 12 letters · shape CVVCCVVCVCCC · "poursuivons" · 11 letters · shape CVVCCVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- poursuivants ← opursuivants · porusuivants · pourrsuivants · poursiuvants · pourssuivants · poursuiavnts · poursuivannts · poursuivanst
- poursuivons ← opursuivons · porusuivons · pourrsuivons · poursiuvons · pourssuivons · poursuiovns · poursuivnos · poursuivonns
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poursuivants" for "poursuivons" ever safe?
Frequency check: "poursuivants" vs "poursuivons" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "poursuivants" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poursuivons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #74,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poursuivants" and "poursuivons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poursuivons vs poursuivront". 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 #74,380 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.