Which to use
“pleuve” and “prouve” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,100
- “pleuve” frequency rank
- #3,490
- “prouve” frequency rank
- 47590
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pleuve | prouve |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante de pleuvoir. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de prouver. |
Where the eye mixes pleuve and prouve
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pleuve and prouve follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pleuve with prouve
A purely visual mix-up. pleuve (\plœv\) and prouve (\pʁuv\) 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 47590, 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\. prouve is at rank #3,490, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁuv\.
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 47590, this pair ranks #185,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pleuve vs prouve
Shared letters: epuv. Private to "pleuve": l. Private to "prouve": or.
"pleuve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "prouve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pleuve" and "prouve" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pleuve" vs "prouve" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pleuve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prouve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #185,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pleuve" and "prouve" 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 #185,728 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.