pères vs près, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“pères” is a noun and “près” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,596
“pères” frequency rank: #294
“près” frequency rank: 5890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pères	près
Definition	Pluriel de père.	À petite distance, à proximité.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pères and près apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

pères

4 ch

près

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pères is \pɛʁ\ while près is \pʁɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pères is recorded at frequency rank #5,596, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ\. près is at rank #294, tagged as anadv, pronounced \pʁɛ\.

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 5890, this pair ranks #427,770 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pères vs près

Shared letters: prsè. Private to "pères": e. Private to "près": -.

"pères" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "près" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Frequency comparison

pères#5,596

près#294

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pères" and "près" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pères" is a noun and "près" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "pères" or "près"?

"près" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #294 in our French list, against #5,596 for "pères". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering pères vs près

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “pères”; for an adverb, it's “près”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pères” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable