prémissevspromiseTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#38,993
“prémisse” frequency rank
#11,275
“promise” frequency rank
50268
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prémisse promise
Definition Chacune des deux propositions d’un syllogisme, la majeure et la mineure, d’où résulte la conclusion. Féminin singulier de promis.

Where the eye mixes prémisse and promise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. prémisse runs 8 letters (CCVCVCCV) against promise's 7 (CCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
prémisse
7 ch
promise

Look-alike desk: prémisse vs promise

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prémisse is \pʁe.mis\ while promise is \pʁɔ.miz\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prémisse is recorded at frequency rank #38,993, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.mis\. promise is at rank #11,275, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.miz\.

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 50268, this pair ranks #164,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prémisse vs promise

Shared letters: eimprs. Private to "prémisse": é. Private to "promise": o.

"prémisse" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "promise" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • promise ← pormise · ppromise · prmoise · proimse · promies · promisse · prommise · promsie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prémisse" and "promise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prémisse" is a noun and "promise" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "prémisse" or "promise"?
"promise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,275 in our French list, against #38,993 for "prémisse". 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 "prémisse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "promise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #164,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prémisse" and "promise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prémisse vs prémisses". 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 #164,012 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