pleuvevspreuvesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#44,100
“pleuve” frequency rank
#2,540
“preuves” frequency rank
46640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pleuve preuves
Definition Variante de pleuvoir. Pluriel de preuve.

Where the eye mixes pleuve and preuves

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pleuve runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against preuves's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pleuve
7 ch
preuves

Look-alike desk: pleuve vs preuves

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pleuve is \plœv\ while preuves is \pʁœv\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pleuve is recorded at frequency rank #44,100, classified as averb, pronounced \plœv\. preuves is at rank #2,540, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁœv\.

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 46640, this pair ranks #193,343 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pleuve vs preuves

Shared letters: epuv. Private to "pleuve": l. Private to "preuves": rs.

"pleuve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "preuves" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pleuve ← lpeuve · peluve · pleuev · pleuvve · plevue · plleuve · plueve · ppleuve
  • preuves ← peruves · ppreuves · preuevs · preuvess · preuvse · preuvves · prevues · prreuves

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pleuve" and "preuves" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pleuve" is a verb and "preuves" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "pleuve" or "preuves" show up more?
"preuves" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,540 in our French list, against #44,100 for "pleuve". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pleuve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "preuves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #193,343 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pleuve" and "preuves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pleuve vs pleuvent". 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 #193,343 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