permisevspriseWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#19,098
“permise” frequency rank
#758
“prise” frequency rank
19856
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permise prise
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de permettre. Faculté de prendre, de saisir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set permise and prise apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
permise
5 ch
prise

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: permise is \pɛʁ.miz\ while prise is \pʁiz\. 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 19856, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permise is recorded at frequency rank #19,098, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.miz\. prise is at rank #758, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁiz\.

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 19856, this pair ranks #371,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of permise vs prise

Shared letters: eiprs. Private to "permise": m. Private to "prise": -.

"permise" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "prise" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permiseeprmise · pemrise · perimse · permies · permisse · permmise · permsie · perrmise
  • prisepirse · pprise · pries · prisse · prrise · prsie · rpise

Frequency comparison

permise#19,098
prise#758

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "permise" and "prise" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "permise" is a verb and "prise" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "permise" or "prise"?
"prise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #758 in our French list, against #19,098 for "permise". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering permise vs prise

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list