prélevévsprêtéeTell them apart

Quick tell: prélevé is a verb, prêtée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“prélevé” is a verb and “prêtée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,635
“prélevé” frequency rank
#33,853
“prêtée” frequency rank
53488
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prélevé prêtée
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de prélever. Féminin singulier de prêté.

Where the eye mixes prélevé and prêtée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
prélevé
6 ch
prêtée

Why the eye confuses prélevé with prêtée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prélevé is \pʁe.lə.ve\ while prêtée is \pʁɛ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53488, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prélevé is recorded at frequency rank #19,635, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁe.lə.ve\. prêtée is at rank #33,853, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɛ.te\.

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 53488, this pair ranks #140,383 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prélevé vs prêtée

Shared letters: epré. Private to "prélevé": lv. Private to "prêtée": .

"prélevé" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "prêtée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prélevé" for "prêtée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prélevé" is a verb and "prêtée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "prélevé" vs "prêtée" - which ranks higher?
"prélevé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,635 in our French list, against #33,853 for "prêtée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prélevé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prêtée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #140,383 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prélevé" and "prêtée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prêtée vs priée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #140,383 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