pourvsPrConfusable pair

Quick tell: pour is a preposition, Pr is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pour” is a preposition and “Pr” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19
“pour” frequency rank
#5,064
“Pr” frequency rank
5083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pour Pr
Definition Au motif de ; dans le but de ; afin de ; à destination de. Professeur, comme un titre.

Where the eye mixes pour and Pr

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pour
2 ch
Pr

Visual trap between pour and Pr

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pour is \puʁ\ while Pr is \pʁɔ.fɛ.sœʁ\. 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 (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pour is recorded at frequency rank #19, classified as aprep, pronounced \puʁ\. Pr is at rank #5,064, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.fɛ.sœʁ\.

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 5083, this pair ranks #429,946 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pour vs Pr

Shared letters: pr. Private to "pour": ou. Private to "Pr": -.

"pour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Pr" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pouropur · poru · pourr · ppour · puor

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pour" for "Pr" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pour" is a preposition and "Pr" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pour" vs "Pr" - which ranks higher?
"pour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our French list, against #5,064 for "Pr". 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 "pour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #429,946 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pour" and "Pr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pr vs prep". 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 #429,946 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