poussezvspoussinConfusable pair

Quick tell: poussez is a verb, poussin is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“poussez” is a verb and “poussin” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,916
“poussez” frequency rank
#15,724
“poussin” frequency rank
43640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poussez poussin
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de pousser. Petit de la poule encore recouvert de duvet.

Where the eye mixes poussez and poussin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poussez and poussin follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
poussez
7 ch
poussin

Why the eye confuses poussez with poussin

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poussez is \pu.se\ while poussin is \pu.sɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 43640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poussez is recorded at frequency rank #27,916, classified as averb, pronounced \pu.se\. poussin is at rank #15,724, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pu.sɛ̃\.

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 43640, this pair ranks #216,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poussez vs poussin

Shared letters: opsu. Private to "poussez": ez. Private to "poussin": in.

"poussez" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "poussin" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poussezopussez · posusez · pousesz · pousez · poussezz · poussze · ppoussez · puossez
  • poussinopussin · posusin · pousin · pousisn · poussinn · poussni · ppoussin · puossin

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poussez" for "poussin" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "poussez" is a verb and "poussin" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "poussez" or "poussin" show up more?
"poussin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,724 in our French list, against #27,916 for "poussez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poussez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poussin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poussez" and "poussin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poussez vs pressez". 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 #216,506 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list