pâquevsproueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,666
“pâque” frequency rank
#20,532
“proue” frequency rank
52198
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pâque proue
Definition Variante orthographique de Pâque. Partie extrême de l’avant d’un vaisseau, l’arrière étant la poupe.

Where the eye mixes pâque and proue

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

5 ch
pâque
5 ch
proue

Look-alike desk: pâque vs proue

A purely visual mix-up. pâque (\pɑk\) and proue (\pʁu\) 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 52198, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pâque is recorded at frequency rank #31,666, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑk\. proue is at rank #20,532, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁu\.

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 52198, this pair ranks #149,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pâque vs proue

Shared letters: epu. Private to "pâque": qâ. Private to "proue": or.

"pâque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "proue" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • proue ← porue · pproue · proeu · prroue · pruoe · rpoue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pâque" for "proue" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɑk\ versus \pʁu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pâque" vs "proue" - which ranks higher?
"proue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,532 in our French list, against #31,666 for "pâque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pâque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "proue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pâque" and "proue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pâque vs pasque". 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 #149,399 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