pullsvspulpeConfusable pair

Which to use

“pulls” and “pulpe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,050
“pulls” frequency rank
#26,490
“pulpe” frequency rank
48540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pulls pulpe
Definition Pluriel de pull. Substance charnue ou molle des fruits et des légumes.

Where the eye mixes pulls and pulpe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pulls (CVCCC) and pulpe (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
pulls
5 ch
pulpe

Why the eye confuses pulls with pulpe

A purely visual mix-up. pulls (\pyl\) and pulpe (\pylp\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pulls is recorded at frequency rank #22,050, classified as anoun, pronounced \pyl\. pulpe is at rank #26,490, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pylp\.

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 48540, this pair ranks #178,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pulls vs pulpe

Shared letters: lpu. Private to "pulls": s. Private to "pulpe": e.

"pulls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "pulpe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pulls ← pluls · ppulls · pullss · pulsl · uplls
  • pulpe ← plupe · ppulpe · pulep · pullpe · pulppe · puple · uplpe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pulls" for "pulpe" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pyl\ versus \pylp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pulls" or "pulpe"?
"pulls" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,050 in our French list, against #26,490 for "pulpe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pulls" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pulpe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #178,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pulls" and "pulpe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palper vs pulpe". 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 #178,112 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list