péchervsprêcheurWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#37,988
“pécher” frequency rank
#41,982
“prêcheur” frequency rank
79970
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pécher prêcheur
Definition Transgresser la loi divine ou religieuse. ou Prédicateur ; celui qui prêche.

Where the eye mixes pécher and prêcheur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pécher runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against prêcheur's 8 (CCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pécher
8 ch
prêcheur

Look-alike desk: pécher vs prêcheur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pécher is \pe.ʃe\ while prêcheur is \pʁɛ.ʃœʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79970, 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\. prêcheur is at rank #41,982, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛ.ʃœʁ\.

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 79970, this pair ranks #22,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pécher vs prêcheur

Shared letters: cehpr. Private to "pécher": é. Private to "prêcheur": .

"pécher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "prêcheur" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pécher" and "prêcheur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pécher" is a verb and "prêcheur" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pécher" vs "prêcheur" - which ranks higher?
"pécher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,988 in our French list, against #41,982 for "prêcheur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pécher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prêcheur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pécher" and "prêcheur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prêchent vs prêcheur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #22,034 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