piratésvsprêtésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: piratés is a verb, prêtés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“piratés” is a verb and “prêtés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,228
“piratés” frequency rank
#30,756
“prêtés” frequency rank
75984
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature piratés prêtés
Definition Participe passé masculin pluriel de pirater. Masculin pluriel de prêté.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch
piratés
6 ch
prêtés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: piratés is \pi.ʁa.te\ while prêtés is \pʁɛ.te\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

piratés is recorded at frequency rank #45,228, classified as averb, pronounced \pi.ʁa.te\. prêtés is at rank #30,756, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɛ.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 75984, this pair ranks #32,424 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of piratés vs prêtés

Shared letters: prsté. Private to "piratés": ai. Private to "prêtés": ê.

"piratés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "prêtés" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Frequency comparison

piratés#45,228
prêtés#30,756

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "piratés" and "prêtés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "piratés" is a verb and "prêtés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "piratés" or "prêtés"?
"prêtés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,756 in our French list, against #45,228 for "piratés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering piratés vs prêtés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “piratés”; for an adjective, it's “prêtés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “piratés” 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