peservsprêterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“peser” and “prêter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,751
“peser” frequency rank
#5,910
“prêter” frequency rank
14661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peser prêter
Definition Examiner la pesanteur d’une chose, la rapporter à un poids déterminé. Fournir, donner.

Where the eye mixes peser and prêter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peser runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against prêter's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
peser
6 ch
prêter

Look-alike desk: peser vs prêter

A purely visual mix-up. peser (\pə.ze\) and prêter (\pʁe.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peser is recorded at frequency rank #8,751, classified as averb, pronounced \pə.ze\. prêter is at rank #5,910, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁe.te\.

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 14661, this pair ranks #395,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of peser vs prêter

Shared letters: epr. Private to "peser": s. Private to "prêter": tê.

"peser" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "prêter" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peser ← epser · peesr · peserr · pesre · pesser · ppeser · pseer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "peser" and "prêter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pə.ze\ versus \pʁe.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "peser" or "prêter"?
"prêter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,910 in our French list, against #8,751 for "peser". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "peser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prêter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #395,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peser" and "prêter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs peser". 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 #395,737 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