Which to use
“pourvoir” is a verb and “pouvoirs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,601
- “pourvoir” frequency rank
- #1,967
- “pouvoirs” frequency rank
- 10568
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pourvoir | pouvoirs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Prendre des dispositions pour quelque chose, y aviser, y donner ordre, suppléer à ce qui manque. | Pluriel de pouvoir. |
Where the eye mixes pourvoir and pouvoirs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. pourvoir (CVVCCVVC) and pouvoirs (CVVCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between pourvoir and pouvoirs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pourvoir is \puʁ.vwaʁ\ while pouvoirs is \pu.vwaʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10568, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pourvoir is recorded at frequency rank #8,601, classified as averb, pronounced \puʁ.vwaʁ\. pouvoirs is at rank #1,967, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pu.vwaʁ\.
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 10568, this pair ranks #412,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pourvoir vs pouvoirs
Shared letters: iopruv. Private to "pourvoir": -. Private to "pouvoirs": s.
"pourvoir" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC · "pouvoirs" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pourvoir" and "pouvoirs" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "pourvoir" or "pouvoirs" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pourvoir" and "pouvoirs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pourvoir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pouvoirs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #412,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pourvoir" and "pouvoirs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pourvoi vs pourvoir". 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 #412,477 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.