précédées vs précédés, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#48,123
“précédées” frequency rank: #33,414
“précédés” frequency rank: 81537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	précédées	précédés
Definition	Participe passé féminin pluriel de précéder.	Participe passé masculin pluriel de précéder.

Same sound, different letters: précédées vs précédés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. précédées runs 9 letters (CCVCVCVVC) against précédés's 8 (CCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch

précédées

8 ch

précédés

Ear matches; page differs - précédées and précédés

This is the hard kind. précédées and précédés are pronounced identically (\pʁe.se.de\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

précédées is recorded at frequency rank #48,123, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁe.se.de\. précédés is at rank #33,414, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁe.se.de\.

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 81537, this pair ranks #18,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of précédées vs précédés

Shared letters: cdprsé. Private to "précédées": e. Private to "précédés": -.

"précédées" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC · "précédés" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "précédées" and "précédés" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are pronounced the same (\pʁe.se.de\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

In ordinary French text, does "précédées" or "précédés" show up more?

"précédés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,414 in our French list, against #48,123 for "précédées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

Full dictionary entry for "précédées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "précédés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #18,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"précédées" and "précédés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "précédées vs prélevées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,546 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.