prêchevsprévueConfusable pair

Quick tell: prêche is a noun, prévue is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“prêche” is a noun and “prévue” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,386
“prêche” frequency rank
#3,561
“prévue” frequency rank
25947
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prêche prévue
Definition Discours, sermon tenu devant une assemblée de croyants dans un but d’enseignement, d’édification. Féminin singulier de prévu.

Where the eye mixes prêche and prévue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. prêche (CCVCCV) and prévue (CCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
prêche
6 ch
prévue

Why the eye confuses prêche with prévue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prêche is \pʁɛʃ\ while prévue is \pʁe.vy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25947, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prêche is recorded at frequency rank #22,386, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛʃ\. prévue is at rank #3,561, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.vy\.

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 25947, this pair ranks #337,954 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prêche vs prévue

Shared letters: epr. Private to "prêche": chê. Private to "prévue": uvé.

"prêche" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "prévue" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prêche" for "prévue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prêche" is a noun and "prévue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "prêche" vs "prévue" - which ranks higher?
"prévue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,561 in our French list, against #22,386 for "prêche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "prêche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prévue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,954 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prêche" and "prévue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prêche vs prêchent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #337,954 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