Which to use
“prend” and “prendre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #420
- “prend” frequency rank
- #198
- “prendre” frequency rank
- 618
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | prend | prendre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe prendre. | Saisir, mettre en sa main. |
Where the eye mixes prend and prendre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between prend and prendre
A purely visual mix-up. prend (\pʁɑ̃\) and prendre (\pʁɑ̃dʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “prend” sits inside “prendre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 618, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
prend is recorded at frequency rank #420, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɑ̃\. prendre is at rank #198, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁɑ̃dʁ\.
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 618, this pair ranks #439,383 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of prend vs prendre
Shared letters: denpr. Private to "prend": -. Private to "prendre": -.
"prend" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "prendre" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "prend" and "prendre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "prend" or "prendre"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "prend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prendre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #439,383 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "prend" and "prendre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prend vs prep". 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 #439,383 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.