paroisvsprisTell them apart

Quick tell: parois is a noun, pris is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“parois” is a noun and “pris” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,212
“parois” frequency rank
#302
“pris” frequency rank
12514
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parois pris
Definition Pluriel de paroi. Occupé, pas disponible.

Where the eye mixes parois and pris

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. parois runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against pris's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
parois
4 ch
pris

Look-alike desk: parois vs pris

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parois is \pa.ʁwa\ while pris is \pʁi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parois is recorded at frequency rank #12,212, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.ʁwa\. pris is at rank #302, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁi\.

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 12514, this pair ranks #404,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parois vs pris

Shared letters: iprs. Private to "parois": ao. Private to "pris": -.

"parois" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "pris" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paroisaprois · paoris · parios · paroiss · parosi · parrois · pparois · praois
  • prispirs · ppris · priss · prris · prsi · rpis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parois" for "pris" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parois" is a noun and "pris" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "parois" or "pris" show up more?
"pris" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #302 in our French list, against #12,212 for "parois". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "parois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parois" and "pris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parois vs Parrish". 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 #404,956 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