Which to use
“près” is an adverb and “priée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #294
- “près” frequency rank
- #49,295
- “priée” frequency rank
- 49589
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | près | priée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | À petite distance, à proximité. | Participe passé féminin singulier de prier. |
Where the eye mixes près and priée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses près with priée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: près is \pʁɛ\ while priée is \pʁi.je\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49589, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
près is recorded at frequency rank #294, classified as anadv, pronounced \pʁɛ\. priée is at rank #49,295, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁi.je\.
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 49589, this pair ranks #169,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of près vs priée
Shared letters: pr. Private to "près": sè. Private to "priée": eié.
"près" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "priée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "près" and "priée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "près" or "priée" show up more?
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 "près" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "priée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #169,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "près" and "priée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs priée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #169,410 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.