prénomsvsprévoisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: prénoms is a noun, prévois is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“prénoms” is a noun and “prévois” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,539
“prénoms” frequency rank
#19,119
“prévois” frequency rank
28658
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prénoms prévois
Definition Pluriel de prénom. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de prévoir.

Where the eye mixes prénoms and prévois

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. prénoms (CCVCVCC) and prévois (CCVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
prénoms
7 ch
prévois

Visual trap between prénoms and prévois

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prénoms is \pʁe.nɔ̃\ while prévois is \pʁe.vwa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28658, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prénoms is recorded at frequency rank #9,539, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.nɔ̃\. prévois is at rank #19,119, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁe.vwa\.

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 28658, this pair ranks #321,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prénoms vs prévois

Shared letters: oprsé. Private to "prénoms": mn. Private to "prévois": iv.

"prénoms" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "prévois" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prénoms" for "prévois" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prénoms" is a noun and "prévois" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "prénoms" or "prévois" show up more?
"prénoms" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,539 in our French list, against #19,119 for "prévois". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "prénoms" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prévois" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prénoms" and "prévois" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prédis vs prévois". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #321,469 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