Which to use
“puer” is a verb and “puit” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,014
- “puer” frequency rank
- #41,476
- “puit” frequency rank
- 78490
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | puer | puit |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sentir mauvais. | Variante orthographique de puits. |
Where the eye mixes puer and puit
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. puer and puit follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between puer and puit
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: puer is \pɥe\ while puit is \pɥi\. 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 78490, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
puer is recorded at frequency rank #37,014, classified as averb, pronounced \pɥe\. puit is at rank #41,476, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɥi\.
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 78490, this pair ranks #25,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of puer vs puit
Shared letters: pu. Private to "puer": er. Private to "puit": it.
"puer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "puit" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "puer" and "puit" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "puer" or "puit"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "puer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "puit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #25,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "puer" and "puit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs puit". 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 #25,599 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.