Which to use
“puisent” and “purent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,119
- “puisent” frequency rank
- #23,663
- “purent” frequency rank
- 67782
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | puisent | purent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de puiser. | Troisième personne du pluriel du passé simple du verbe pouvoir. |
Where the eye mixes puisent and purent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. puisent runs 7 letters (CVVCVCC) against purent's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: puisent vs purent
A purely visual mix-up. puisent (\pɥiz\) and purent (\pyʁ\) 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 67782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
puisent is recorded at frequency rank #44,119, classified as averb, pronounced \pɥiz\. purent is at rank #23,663, tagged as averb, pronounced \pyʁ\.
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 67782, this pair ranks #61,948 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of puisent vs purent
Shared letters: enptu. Private to "puisent": is. Private to "purent": r.
"puisent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "purent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "puisent" and "purent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "puisent" or "purent" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "puisent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "purent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,948 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "puisent" and "purent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plient vs puisent". 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 #61,948 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.