Which to use
“puisé” and “puisse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,135
- “puisé” frequency rank
- #909
- “puisse” frequency rank
- 33044
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | puisé | puisse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de puiser. | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de pouvoir. |
Where the eye mixes puisé and puisse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. puisé runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against puisse's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between puisé and puisse
A purely visual mix-up. puisé (\pɥi.ze\) and puisse (\pɥis\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33044, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
puisé is recorded at frequency rank #32,135, classified as averb, pronounced \pɥi.ze\. puisse is at rank #909, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɥis\.
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 33044, this pair ranks #293,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of puisé vs puisse
Shared letters: ipsu. Private to "puisé": é. Private to "puisse": e.
"puisé" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "puisse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- puisse ← piusse · ppuisse · puise · puises · pusise · upisse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "puisé" for "puisse" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "puisé" or "puisse" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "puisé" and "puisse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "puisé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "puisse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #293,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "puisé" and "puisse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "priée vs puisé". 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 #293,226 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.