péchervsprêcheTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#37,988
“pécher” frequency rank
#22,386
“prêche” frequency rank
60374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pécher prêche
Definition Transgresser la loi divine ou religieuse. Discours, sermon tenu devant une assemblée de croyants dans un but d’enseignement, d’édification.

Where the eye mixes pécher and prêche

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pécher
6 ch
prêche

Look-alike desk: pécher vs prêche

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pécher is \pe.ʃe\ while prêche is \pʁɛʃ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pécher is recorded at frequency rank #37,988, classified as averb, pronounced \pe.ʃe\. prêche is at rank #22,386, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛʃ\.

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 60374, this pair ranks #97,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pécher vs prêche

Shared letters: cehpr. Private to "pécher": é. Private to "prêche": ê.

"pécher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "prêche" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pécher" and "prêche" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pécher" is a verb and "prêche" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pécher" vs "prêche" - which ranks higher?
"prêche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,386 in our French list, against #37,988 for "pécher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "pécher" and "prêche" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pécher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prêche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pécher" and "prêche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pécher vs peler". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #97,915 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