praisedvspraisesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#6,950
“praised” frequency rank
#14,813
“praises” frequency rank
21763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature praised praises
Definition simple past and past participle of praise plural of praise

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set praised and praises apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
praised
7 ch
praises

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: praised is /pɹeɪzd/ while praises is /ˈpɹeɪzɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “praised” becomes s in “praises”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

praised is recorded at frequency rank #6,950, classified as averb, pronounced /pɹeɪzd/. praises is at rank #14,813, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹeɪzɪz/.

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 21763, this pair ranks #421,511 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of praised vs praises

Shared letters: aeiprs. Private to "praised": d. Private to "praises": -.

"praised" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "praises" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • praisedparised · ppraised · praiesd · praisde · praisedd · praissed · prasied · priased
  • praisesparises · ppraises · praiess · praisess · praisses · prasies · priases · prraises

Frequency comparison

praised#6,950
praises#14,813

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "praised" and "praises" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "praised" is a verb and "praises" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "praised" or "praises"?
"praised" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,950 in our English list, against #14,813 for "praises". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering praised vs praises

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “praised”; for a noun, it's “praises”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “praised” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list