Which to use
“permettre” and “promettre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,121
- “permettre” frequency rank
- #12,224
- “promettre” frequency rank
- 13345
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | permettre | promettre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Donner liberté, pouvoir de faire, de dire. | S’engager verbalement ou par écrit à quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes permettre and promettre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. permettre (CVCCVCCCV) and promettre (CCVCVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between permettre and promettre
A purely visual mix-up. permettre (\pɛʁ.mɛtʁ\) and promettre (\pʁɔ.mɛtʁ\) 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 13345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
permettre is recorded at frequency rank #1,121, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛtʁ\. promettre is at rank #12,224, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.mɛtʁ\.
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 13345, this pair ranks #401,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of permettre vs promettre
Shared letters: emprt. Private to "permettre": -. Private to "promettre": o.
"permettre" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV · "promettre" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "permettre" and "promettre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "permettre" vs "promettre" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "permettre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "promettre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "permettre" and "promettre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Prométhée vs promettre". 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 #401,399 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.