prenezvsprêtéeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,539
“prenez” frequency rank
#33,853
“prêtée” frequency rank
36392
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prenez prêtée
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe prendre. Féminin singulier de prêté.

Where the eye mixes prenez and prêtée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. prenez (CCVCVC) and prêtée (CCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
prenez
6 ch
prêtée

Why the eye confuses prenez with prêtée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prenez is \pʁə.ne\ while prêtée is \pʁɛ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 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 36392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prenez is recorded at frequency rank #2,539, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁə.ne\. 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 36392, this pair ranks #269,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prenez vs prêtée

Shared letters: epr. Private to "prenez": nz. Private to "prêtée": téê.

"prenez" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "prêtée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prenez ← pernez · pprenez · preenz · prenezz · prennez · prenze · prneez · prrenez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prenez" and "prêtée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prenez" is a verb and "prêtée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "prenez" or "prêtée" show up more?
"prenez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,539 in our French list, against #33,853 for "prêtée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prenez" 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 #269,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prenez" and "prêtée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prêtée vs priée". 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 #269,944 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