éprouvéevséprouverConfusable pair

Quick tell: éprouvée is a adjective, éprouver is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“éprouvée” is an adjective and “éprouver” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,935
“éprouvée” frequency rank
#16,043
“éprouver” frequency rank
42978
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éprouvée éprouver
Definition Féminin singulier de éprouvé. Tester un objet pour se rendre compte s’il a toutes les qualités voulues.

Same sound, different letters: éprouvée vs éprouver

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. éprouvée (VCCVVCVV) and éprouver (VCCVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
éprouvée
8 ch
éprouver

Homophone desk: éprouvée vs éprouver

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: éprouvée and éprouver carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.pʁu.ve\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éprouvée is recorded at frequency rank #26,935, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.pʁu.ve\. éprouver is at rank #16,043, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.pʁu.ve\.

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 42978, this pair ranks #221,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of éprouvée vs éprouver

Shared letters: eopruvé. Private to "éprouvée": -. Private to "éprouver": -.

"éprouvée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVV  ·  "éprouver" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "éprouvée" for "éprouver" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "éprouvée" is an adjective and "éprouver" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "éprouvée" or "éprouver" show up more?
"éprouver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,043 in our French list, against #26,935 for "éprouvée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "éprouvée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "éprouver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "éprouvée" and "éprouver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éprouvée vs éprouvette". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #221,513 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