presentvspresentsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: present is a noun, presents is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“present” is a noun and “presents” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,812
“present” frequency rank
#49,164
“presents” frequency rank
77976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature present presents
Definition Geschenk, Gabe, Präsent 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs present

Letter map: present vs presents

Shared letters muted; letters that set present and presents apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

7 ch
present
8 ch
presents

Grammar separator: present vs presents

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: present is anoun and presentsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “present” sits inside “presents”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

present is recorded at frequency rank #28,812, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpɹɛzənt]. presents is at rank #49,164, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 77976, this pair ranks #248,606 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of present vs presents

Shared letters: enprst. Private to "present": -. Private to "presents": -.

"present" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "presents" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • presentpersent · ppresent · preesnt · presennt · presentt · presetn · presnet · pressent
  • presentspersents · ppresents · preesnts · presennts · presenst · presentss · presentts · presetns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "present" for "presents" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "present" is a noun and "presents" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "present" vs "presents" - which ranks higher?
"present" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,812 in our German list, against #49,164 for "presents". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "present" and "presents".

  • Full dictionary entry for "present" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "presents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #248,606 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "present" and "presents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "presents vs puzzles". 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 #248,606 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list