Which to use
“près” is an adverb and “prévu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #294
- “près” frequency rank
- #1,401
- “prévu” frequency rank
- 1695
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | près | prévu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | À petite distance, à proximité. | Qui a été prévu, à quoi l’on s’attend. |
Where the eye mixes près and prévu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between près and prévu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: près is \pʁɛ\ while prévu is \pʁe.vy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 1695, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
près is recorded at frequency rank #294, classified as anadv, pronounced \pʁɛ\. prévu is at rank #1,401, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.vy\.
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 1695, this pair ranks #437,560 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of près vs prévu
Shared letters: pr. Private to "près": sè. Private to "prévu": uvé.
"près" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "prévu" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "près" and "prévu" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "près" or "prévu" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "près" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prévu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,560 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "près" and "prévu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs prévu". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #437,560 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.