Which to use
“près” is an adverb and “pri” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #294
- “près” frequency rank
- #26,137
- “pri” frequency rank
- 26431
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | près | pri |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | À petite distance, à proximité. | Argile, glaise. |
Where the eye mixes près and pri
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: près vs pri
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: près is \pʁɛ\ while pri is \ˈpriː\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
près is recorded at frequency rank #294, classified as anadv, pronounced \pʁɛ\. pri is at rank #26,137, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpriː\.
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 26431, this pair ranks #335,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of près vs pri
Shared letters: pr. Private to "près": sè. Private to "pri": i.
"près" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "pri" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "près" and "pri" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "près" vs "pri" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "près" and "pri" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "près" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #335,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "près" and "pri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs pri". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #335,055 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.