premier vs prêter, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#145
“premier” frequency rank: #5,910
“prêter” frequency rank: 6055
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	premier	prêter
Definition	Adjectif numéral ordinal correspondant au nombre 1.	Fournir, donner.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set premier and prêter apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

premier

6 ch

prêter

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: premier is \pʁə.mje\ while prêter is \pʁe.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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

premier is recorded at frequency rank #145, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁə.mje\. prêter is at rank #5,910, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁe.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 6055, this pair ranks #427,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of premier vs prêter

Shared letters: epr. Private to "premier": im. Private to "prêter": tê.

"premier" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC · "prêter" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

premier ← permier · ppremier · preimer · premeir · premierr · premire · premmier · prmeier

Frequency comparison

premier#145

prêter#5,910

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "premier" and "prêter" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "premier" is an adjective and "prêter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "premier" or "prêter"?

"premier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #145 in our French list, against #5,910 for "prêter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering premier vs prêter

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “premier”; for a verb, it's “prêter”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “premier” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable