78 Confusing French Homonyms Explained

Pretty much every language has at least a few homonyms – words that are pronounced or spelled the same but with different meanings – and French seems to have more than most, something that can make things seem a bit complicated.

In fact, I’ve seen quite a few videos on TikTok and YouTube that take advantage of this fact for comedic effect – because in extreme cases, sometimes French homonyms can make the language appear quite ridiculous!

However, in reality, homonyms rarely cause much trouble or confusion because meanings are almost always clear from the context. So to help you understand how things work, in this post, I look at French homonyms and give you some tips on how to tell them apart.

So now let’s get stuck right in!

French Homonyms From A-E

1. Avocat

Avocat in French means both “lawyer” and “avocado” – I don’t think see a connection, and this one has always puzzled me! 

Needless to say, the situation will guide you to the correct interpretation – for example, if you hear someone say j’ai besoin d’un bon avocat, the context of whether you think they’re hungry or in trouble with the law will tell you which of the two they are referring to!

2. Bleu

Bleu is the word for the colour blue – but it also means “bruise”. This is perhaps logical because when you get a bruise, your skin turns blue…or purple or black or some other combination of these colours.

You shouldn’t get confused with this word, though. Think of somebody saying j’ai un bleu sur ma jambe (I’ve got a bruise on my leg) – it’s hard to imagine thinking the person was saying “I’ve got a blue on my leg” because that wouldn’t make any sense!

3&4. Bout vs boue

Bout means “end” while boue means mud. However, the former is masculine and the latter is feminine, which will help you decipher the meaning.

For example, if someone says je suis au bout, you should be able to understand that they are saying “I’m at the end” – while je suis dans la boue means “I’m in the mud”.

5&6. Ça vs sa

These two words are pronounced the same, but they are used very differently. Ça can mean “that” or “it” – and it is also found in the common French phrase ça va? (how are you?).

Sa, on the other hand, is the feminine singular possessive adjective meaning “his” or “her” – and since they play different roles in sentences, they are unlikely to cause you much confusion.

7,8,9,10,11. Cent vs sens/sent vs sang vs sans

These three words are pronounced identically, but the meaning is very different. Cent means “one hundred”, sens and sent are the first/second and third person singular of the verb sentir (to feel, to smell) respectively, sang means blood and sans means “without”.

It’s almost impossible to think of an example of how you would get confused over which one the speaker means because it will always be clear from the context and the way these words work differently in sentences.

While we’re on this topic, though, the French verb sentir itself has two meanings as I just noted, so here are a couple of tips to help you avoid making mistakes.

When you want to say you don’t feel well, the correct expression is je ne me sens pas bien, using the reflexive form and bien (well).

On the other hand, if you want to say something doesn’t smell good, the correct expression is ça ne sent pas bon (bon means “good”).

Above all, avoid saying je ne sens pas bon if you feel bad – because what you’ll actually be saying is that you don’t smell good.

Finally, if you hear someone saying je le sens, it’s possible that they are saying either “I feel it” or “I smell it” – so in this case, the only way you’ll be able to work out which one they mean is by thinking carefully about the context.

12,14,14,15. Cher/chère vs chair vs chaire

Cher is the French word for “expensive” (and also “dear”) while chair means flesh. Since the former is an adjective and the latter is a noun, you should find it easy to work out which one you’re hearing.

In terms of whether cher means “expensive” or “dear”, there’s also no problem – the English word “dear” can have both meanings too, and we never have any trouble understanding which is intended.

Another word to be aware of is chaire – it means either “pulpit” or “chair” (as in a position in a university, for example). However, since this word is lower-frequency and only used in specific circumstances, you are likely to know what the speaker is referring to.

16&17. Côte (and cote)

Côte can mean either “coast” or “rib” – but paying attention to whether someone is talking about the seaside or their body should give you a clue about which one they mean. 

It’s also more common to talk about une côte when talking about a rib and la côte when referring to the coast – although this is not a rule, it just happens to be the way these words are most frequently used.

Another word, cote, also exists, but is much less high frequency – it has various meanings, including “ratings”, “market value” and “(betting) odds”.

Also, don’t get confused with côté. Unlike côte and cote, which are both feminine, this word is masculine. It means “side”.

18, 19, 20. Coup vs cou vs coût

Coup (a word with several meanings, with many of them related to things like “knock”, “blow” and “punch”), cou (neck) and coût (cost) are all pronounced the same – but usually, it will be clear which the speaker means.

An interesting expression to look out for is valoir le coup, meaning “to be worth a go” or “to be worth doing”. The correct word here is coup – even though you might think it should be coût because then it would mean “to be worth the cost”.

Also, make sure you don’t confuse cou with cul. They are not pronounced the same, but for many English speakers, it can be difficult to distinguish the sounds at first. The latter word means “arse”, so getting them mixed up can lead to all kinds of hilarity!

21&22. Cours vs cour

Un cours means a “lesson” or a “class” while une cour is a “courtyard”. The “s” won’t help you here because it’s silent – but listening to whether the word is masculine or feminine and paying attention to the context will tell you which one the speaker is talking about.

23&24. Dans vs dent

This is an easy one. Dans means “in” while dent means “tooth”, but since these are different parts of speech, it’s almost impossible to confuse them when you hear them in a sentence.

25. Enceinte

Enceinte is a slightly peculiar word since it has three completely different and unrelated meanings.

When used as an adjective, it means “pregnant” while as a noun, it can mean either “speaker” (as in the thing you use to play music) or “outer wall”/”enclosure”. 

A fourth meaning referring to the space enclosed by a wall or enclosure is also possible, something related to the third meaning.

As usual, the context of the conversation will usually let you know which meaning is intended, so you’re unlikely to ever get mixed up. 

Furthermore, generally speaking, you are probably more likely to hear this word used to mean “pregnant” or “speaker” unless you happen to be having a conversation about the layout of a town with an encircling wall or something similar.

26. Été

Été is the French word for “summer”, but it’s also the past participle of the verb être (to be).

These words are unlikely to cause much confusion in reality because they are different types of words and function quite differently in sentences.

French Homonyms From F-J

27&28. Faim vs fin

Faim (hunger) and fin (end) are both pronounced the same and are both feminine. However, you’ll most often encounter faim in the expression avoir faim (to be hungry), and the word fin wouldn’t make sense in this context, so you’re unlikely to get confused.

29&30. Filtre vs philtre

Filtre means “filter” – but the much less common word philtre, which means “potion” is pronounced the same way.

However, you are much less likely to hear the word philtre unless the context makes it clear that is what is being spoken about, so this is probably not a word that’s likely to cause any mix-ups.

31,32,33. Fois vs foi vs foie

Fois means “time” (as in “each time” or “three times”), foi means “faith” and foie means “liver”.

With fois, it’s usually very clear that this is the word that’s meant – for example, if you hear someone say j’y suis allé trois fois (I went three times) it should be obvious that the speaker isn’t talking about faith or livers.

The other two can be told apart because foi is feminine while foie is masculine – ma foi means “my faith” while mon foie means “my liver”.

In some sentences, you might not have a word alongside the noun to tell you its French word gender, but the context will still usually make it obvious what is being discussed.

For example, if you hear someone say je n’ai pas de foi, it should be clear to you that the person is saying that they have no faith rather than that they have no liver!

French Homonyms From K-O

34,35,36,37. L’heure vs leur vs leurs vs leurre

L’heure means “the hour” or “the time” – but there are other words in French that are pronounced the same.

Leur can be an indirect pronoun meaning “to them”, or it can be the singular possessive adjective meaning “their”. Leurs is the plural version of the possessive adjective, also meaning “their”.

A less common word that you might meet is leurre, which is a noun meaning “lure” in the sense of “bait”.

I don’t think that in practice you’re likely to mix these words up because the context and the way they function in sentences will make it clear which one is being used.

This does remind me of a “funny” joke I once cracked in French, though.

I remember once seeing a long line of ants all busy doing whatever it is that ants do, and I wondered out loud to my friend about where they were all going.

My friend looked at me, and with a slight frown and a shrug of the shoulders said, “demande-leur” (ask them) – at which point, I turned to the ants and asked, “il est quelle heure?” (what’s the time?).

(Demande-leur is pronounced the same as demande l’heure, which means “ask the time” – I guess you had to be there…)

38,39,40. Mer vs mère vs maire

Mer means “sea” while mère means “mother” – and these words are also both feminine, so there’s no way of telling them apart other than the context.

This pair of words could potentially be confused if you didn’t have all the details of the conversation – for example, la mer est froide (the sea is cold) could potentially be mistaken for la mère est froide, suggesting that somebody’s mother is cold or unfriendly.

In reality, though, if you have been following the conversation, you will usually understand what somebody is trying to say.

Another word, maire, is also pronounced in the same way. This word, meaning “mayor”, can be either masculine or feminine, depending on who the mayor is – and again, the context of the conversation will tell you if someone is saying maire, mer or mère.

41,42,43. Mur vs mûre vs mûr

Mur means wall, and it’s not usually easy to confuse this with mûre, which means “blackberry” or just “berry” more generally. 

For example, if someone says ces mûres sont delicieuses (these blackberries are delicious), you’re unlikely to think they are talking about delicious walls! (Mûre is also feminine while mur is masculine, so this can also help if you need further clues.)

Another word with the same pronunciation is mûr (mûre in the feminine form), which means “ripe”.

However, since this is an adjective and not a noun, you aren’t likely to mix it up with the name of the fruit, even in sentences like ces mûres sont mûres (these blackberries are ripe) – the alternative translation “these blackberries are blackberries” is unlikely!

By the way, if you'd like to talk about food in French fluently, you might enjoy this post about the names of foods in French.

44&45. Ou vs où

Ou and où are pronounced the same but have quite different meanings. Ou without an accent means “or” while with an accent, the word means “where”. 

I’ve never found this particularly confusing in spoken French since the context always lets you know which word is meant.

However, I sometimes find it tricky to remember which one has the accent when I’m writing – so I find it helpful to ask myself the question, “where does the accent go?”. 

The answer, of course, is in the question. the key to remembering is the word “where” – because the accent goes on the French word for “where”.

French Homonyms From P-T

46,47,48. Paie vs paye vs pet

This one is a little different because paie and paye are two alternative spellings of the same word, one that you can probably guess is the equivalent of the English noun “pay” (as in “salary”).

However, don’t get them confused with another word with the same pronunciation – pet means “fart” (from the verb péter, “to fart”).

49&50. Pain vs pin

The French love their pain (bread), and this is understandable since it’s undeniably some of the best anywhere in the world.

However, pin is pronounced the same and means “pine” – although you’re very unlikely to get confused and end up leaving a boulangerie (bakery) with a bag of pinecones instead of a couple of baguettes under your arm.

51,52,53. Père vs pair vs paire

Mothers are not the only ones who might suffer from homonym-induced confusion – because père (father) is pronounced the same as pair and paire.

The main meaning of pair is “even” (as in the numbers 2, 4, 6 etc.), and it is also used as an adjective meaning “twin” (as in the sense of two of a thing rather than twin siblings). It can also be used as a noun to mean “peer”.

Paire, on the other hand, is a feminine noun meaning “pair” in the English sense of the word meaning “two of a thing” – for example, une paire de chausettes (a pair of socks).

To be honest, pair and paire can be a little confusing, although the meaning is close, so you should be able to work out what someone is saying.

The good news, though, is that if someone is saying père, the meaning should be obvious!

54. Plus

This is one I’ve always found a little bizarre.

Plus generally means “more”, but in a negative sentence combined with ne, it means “no more” or “no longer”.

That all seems quite logical, but in informal spoken French, the ne is often dropped, so it seems that plus can have the opposite meaning to the one it should have.

For example, if you hear j’en ai plus, does it mean “I have more” or “I don’t have any more”?

Fortunately, you can generally find a clue in the pronunciation – when the meaning is positive, the “s” at the end is usually pronounced while when the meaning is negative, the “s” is usually silent.

55, 56, 57. Plus tôt vs plutôt vs Pluto

Plus tôt means “earlier” (and is pronounced with a silent “s”, breaking the rule I mentioned above for the pronunciation of plus) while plutôt means “rather”. 

As ever, these words are easy to distinguish in practice because of how they function and are used in sentences.

That said, you could think up some amusing sentences using these words – for example, je préfère partir plutôt plus tôt plutôt que plus tard (I prefer to leave a little early rather than late).

Mickey Mouse’s dog Pluto is also called Pluto in French, with the same pronunciation – and this can sometimes be a source of jokes and wordplays when using plus tôt or plutôt.

58,59,60. Poids vs pois vs poix

Poids means “weight”, pois means “pea” and poix means “pitch” (in the sense of the tar-like substance used for waterproofing).

As ever, though, the context will usually make it perfectly clear what a person is talking about.

Furthermore, since peas are usually referred to as petits pois, this will help clear up any confusion. And poix is a low-frequency word, so you should know if this is what somebody is talking about from the topic of the conversation.

61&62. Porc vs port

Here’s one I wanted to include because somebody made a joke to me about this one just last week.

While I was on the telephone, I told the person that I was going au port (to the port) to which, the person at the other end of the line replied quel cochon? (which pig? – porc means “pork” and can also mean “pig”).

The joke didn’t really even make sense, and it wasn’t particularly funny – it was more of a case of saying something stupid for the sake of it. 

However, it shows how French speakers can sometimes make plays on words because of the many French homonyms in their language, so I thought it was worth mentioning here!

63&64. Près vs prêt

Another pair of words with identical pronunciation that is unlikely to cause much trouble in practice.

Près means “near” and prêt means “ready” – and the context will usually tell you everything you need to know.

For example, if you’re getting dressed to go out and your friend asks, tu es prêt?, you’re very unlikely to think they’re asking if you’re close because that just wouldn’t make any sense!

65. Propre 

Propre is a word that can mean either “own” (as in “my own handiwork”) or “clean”. However, it’s easy to distinguish which meaning you’re dealing with since when it means “own”, it is placed before the noun – and when it means “clean”, it comes after the noun.

Of course, this means it can also theoretically appear twice in the same sentence, giving you possibilities like mes propres vêtements propres, which means “my own clean clothes”!

66&67. Reine vs renne

Reine means “queen” and renne means “reindeer” – and in this case, it’s easy to imagine how you might confuse them.

For example, if you just heard somebody say la reine est morte, you might wonder whether they were talking about a queen or a reindeer.

However, the rest of the conversation should make it clear which the speaker is referring to.

For example, if you happen to know that the speaker keeps a reindeer, there’s a good chance that they are referring to the animal – but otherwise, it’s more likely to be a queen.

And if you’re really still not sure, you can simply ask quelle reine? (which queen?), and the person will clarify.

68&69. Salle vs sale

Salle means “hall” or “room” while sale means “dirty”.

You’re unlikely to ever get them mixed up since the former is a noun and the latter is an adjective, so they function differently in sentences.

I’ve always found it vaguely ironic, though, that the salle de bain (bathroom) is where you go to get clean…

70&71. Signe vs cygne

These two words are both masculine and are pronounced identically. However, signe means “sign” while cygne means “swan”. 

It will usually be clear that someone is talking about a swan when they say cygne, so if you don’t think they are talking about a swan, it’s probably safe to assume they mean signe.

For example, if you hear someone say c’est un signe, there’s a good chance it means “it’s a sign” – unless they happen to be pointing at a swan, in which case the meaning is more likely to be cygne.

72. Son

Son can mean “sound” and it can also be the masculine singular possessive adjective meaning “his”. They function very differently in sentences though, so you shouldn’t find yourself getting them mixed up.

73. Temps

Temps can mean “time” (as in the amount of time it takes to do something rather than the time of day) and it can also mean “weather”.

There is some potential for confusing these two, but usually, the meaning is clear.

If someone says il fait quel temps dehors? (what’s the weather like outside), it will be clear they’re referring to the weather – but if you hear something like je n’ai pas le temps (I don’t have time), you will know they mean time.

74. Tour

As a feminine noun, tour means “tower” while as a masculine noun, it has several meanings, including “turn” (as in “it’s my turn”), “circumference”, a “quick walk” and “tour” in the sense of a “visit”. 

Paying attention to whether the word is masculine or feminine will give you a cue about which word is intended. With the masculine version, you will also have to think about the context to work out what is meant, but in practice, it should always be clear. 

French Homonyms From U-Z

75,76,77,78. Verre vs ver vs vers vs vert

Verre (glass, a glass), ver (worm), vers (towards) and vert (green) are all pronounced in exactly the same way, so you’ll have to pay attention to the context to work out what someone is talking about.

However, from the context, it’s usually quite obvious – for example, if you hear someone talking about un verre de bière, you’ll immediately understand that they’re talking about a glass of beer rather than anything to do with worms.

You can also specify that you’re talking about an earthworm by saying un ver de terre (although ver is also sometimes used informally for other “wormy” creatures like magots or caterpillars when people don’t know exactly what kind of bug they’re looking at).

At the same time, it’s possible to think up some funny sentences using these words.

For example, you could potentially find yourself uttering a sentence like il a lancé le verre de vers vert vers la mer, meaning “he threw the green glass of worms towards the sea”. 

FAQs About French Homonyms And French Homophones

Understanding Homophones And Homonyms In French

As I hope you’ve realised by now, although many words have the same French pronunciation or spelling, this almost never causes any confusion, mainly because of the context.

Beyond this, you can also look for other clues as to the meaning of the word. For example, sometimes nouns are pronounced the same but have different genders, and different parts of speech all behave differently in sentences, so this can also help.

Beyond this, though, if you’re still confused, you can always ask a question to clear up any doubt. And in certain rare situations, this is something that native speakers might need to resort to too.

In the meantime, follow the rules of StoryLearning and read French books. As you read and especially as you listen to short stories in French, you'll see and hear these French homonyms over and over and you'll soon be able to tell them apart.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.