puisvspumaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: puis is a adverb, puma is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“puis” is an adverb and “puma” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#172
“puis” frequency rank
#19,637
“puma” frequency rank
19809
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature puis puma
Definition (adverbe de temps) Permet l’enchaînement chronologique d’évènements. Félin carnassier d’Amérique, de taille moyenne, à pelage fauve à beige et sans crinière.

Where the eye mixes puis and puma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
puis
4 ch
puma

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: puis is \pɥi\ while puma is \py.ma\. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19809, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

puis is recorded at frequency rank #172, classified as anadv, pronounced \pɥi\. puma is at rank #19,637, tagged as anoun, pronounced \py.ma\.

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 19809, this pair ranks #371,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of puis vs puma

Shared letters: pu. Private to "puis": is. Private to "puma": am.

"puis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "puma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • puispius · ppuis · puiss · pusi · upis
  • pumapmua · ppuma · puam · pumma · upma

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "puis" and "puma" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "puis" is an adverb and "puma" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "puis" or "puma"?
"puis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #172 in our French list, against #19,637 for "puma". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "puis" and "puma". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "puis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #371,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "puis" and "puma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PMR vs puma". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list