présencevsprésentezWhich spelling fits?

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

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 eye mixes présence and présentez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. présence runs 8 letters (CCVCVCCV) against présentez's 9 (CCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
présence
9 ch
présentez

Look-alike desk: présence vs présentez

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

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.
Frequency check: "présence" vs "présentez" - which ranks higher?
"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.

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 "présentez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #362,475 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "présence" and "présentez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "présentez vs prétendez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #362,475 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