prendsvsprêtésWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,123
“prends” frequency rank
#30,756
“prêtés” frequency rank
31879
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prends prêtés
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de prendre. Masculin pluriel de prêté.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set prends and prêtés apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
prends
6 ch
prêtés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prends is \pʁɑ̃\ while prêtés is \pʁɛ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prends is recorded at frequency rank #1,123, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɑ̃\. prêtés is at rank #30,756, 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 31879, this pair ranks #300,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prends vs prêtés

Shared letters: prs. Private to "prends": den. Private to "prêtés": téê.

"prends" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "prêtés" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prendspernds · pprends · predns · prendds · prendss · prennds · prensd · prneds

Frequency comparison

prends#1,123
prêtés#30,756

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prends" and "prêtés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prends" is a verb and "prêtés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "prends" or "prêtés"?
"prends" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,123 in our French list, against #30,756 for "prêtés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering prends vs prêtés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list