présencevsprésentésWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#745
“présence” frequency rank
#4,973
“présentés” frequency rank
5718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature présence présentés
Definition Existence d’une personne dans un lieu donné. Participe passé masculin pluriel de présenter.

Where the eye mixes présence and présentés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. présence runs 8 letters (CCVCVCCV) against présentés's 9 (CCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
présence
9 ch
présentés

Why the eye confuses présence with présentés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: présence is \pʁe.zɑ̃s\ while présentés is \pʁe.zɑ̃.te\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

présence is recorded at frequency rank #745, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.zɑ̃s\. présentés is at rank #4,973, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁe.zɑ̃.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 5718, this pair ranks #428,241 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of présence vs présentés

Shared letters: enprsé. Private to "présence": c. Private to "présentés": t.

"présence" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "présentés" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "présence" and "présentés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "présence" is a noun and "présentés" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "présence" vs "présentés" - which ranks higher?
"présence" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #745 in our French list, against #4,973 for "présentés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "présence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "présentés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #428,241 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "présence" and "présentés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "présentés vs prudentes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #428,241 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