prêchesvspreuvesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,617
“prêches” frequency rank
#2,540
“preuves” frequency rank
46157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prêches preuves
Definition Pluriel de prêche. Pluriel de preuve.

Where the eye mixes prêches and preuves

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. prêches (CCVCCVC) and preuves (CCVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
prêches
7 ch
preuves

Visual trap between prêches and preuves

A purely visual mix-up. prêches (\pʁɛʃ\) and preuves (\pʁœv\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prêches is recorded at frequency rank #43,617, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛʃ\. 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 46157, this pair ranks #197,143 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prêches vs preuves

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "prêches": chê. Private to "preuves": uv.

"prêches" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "preuves" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • preuves ← peruves · ppreuves · preuevs · preuvess · preuvse · preuvves · prevues · prreuves

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prêches" for "preuves" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɛʃ\ versus \pʁœv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "prêches" vs "preuves" - which ranks higher?
"preuves" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,540 in our French list, against #43,617 for "prêches". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "prêches" and "preuves" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prêches" 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 #197,143 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prêches" and "preuves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prêches vs prêtées". 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 #197,143 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