Which to use
“près” is an adverb and “prêtés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #294
- “près” frequency rank
- #30,756
- “prêtés” frequency rank
- 31050
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | près | prêtés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | À petite distance, à proximité. | Masculin pluriel de prêté. |
Where the eye mixes près and prêtés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. près runs 4 letters (CCVC) against prêtés's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses près with prêtés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: près is \pʁɛ\ while prêtés is \pʁɛ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
près is recorded at frequency rank #294, classified as anadv, pronounced \pʁɛ\. 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 31050, this pair ranks #306,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of près vs prêtés
Shared letters: prs. Private to "près": è. Private to "prêtés": téê.
"près" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "prêtés" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "près" and "prêtés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "près" or "prêtés" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "près" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prêtés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #306,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "près" and "prêtés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pètes vs prêtés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #306,313 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.