présence vs présentez, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#745
“présence” frequency rank: #20,828
“présentez” frequency rank: 21573
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	présence	présentez
Definition	Existence d’une personne dans un lieu donné.	Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de présenter.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set présence and présentez apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

présence

9 ch

présentez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: présence is \pʁe.zɑ̃s\ while présentez 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 21573, 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\. présentez is at rank #20,828, 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 21573, this pair ranks #362,475 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of présence vs présentez

Shared letters: enprsé. Private to "présence": c. Private to "présentez": tz.

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

Frequency comparison

présence#745

présentez#20,828

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "présence" and "présentez" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "présence" is a noun and "présentez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "présence" or "présentez"?

"présence" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #745 in our French list, against #20,828 for "présentez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering présence vs présentez

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “présence”; for a verb, it's “présentez”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “présence” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable