Which to use
“puent” and “pût” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,309
- “puent” frequency rank
- #36,553
- “pût” frequency rank
- 64862
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | puent | pût |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de puer. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du subjonctif du verbe pouvoir. |
Same sound, different letters: puent vs pût
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - puent and pût
This is the hard kind. puent and pût are pronounced identically (\py\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64862, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
puent is recorded at frequency rank #28,309, classified as averb, pronounced \py\. pût is at rank #36,553, tagged as averb, pronounced \py\.
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 64862, this pair ranks #75,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of puent vs pût
Shared letters: pt. Private to "puent": enu. Private to "pût": û.
"puent" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "pût" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- puent ← peunt · ppuent · puennt · puentt · puetn · punet · upent
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "puent" for "pût" ever safe?
Frequency check: "puent" vs "pût" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "puent" / "pût". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "puent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pût" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #75,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "puent" and "pût" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pût". 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 #75,004 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.