présencesvspréservésWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#21,126
“présences” frequency rank
#30,755
“préservés” frequency rank
51881
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature présences préservés
Definition Pluriel de présence. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe préserver.

Where the eye mixes présences and préservés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. présences and préservés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
présences
9 ch
préservés

Visual trap between présences and préservés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: présences is \pʁe.zɑ̃s\ while préservés is \pʁe.zɛʁ.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51881, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

présences is recorded at frequency rank #21,126, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.zɑ̃s\. préservés is at rank #30,755, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁe.zɛʁ.ve\.

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 51881, this pair ranks #151,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of présences vs préservés

Shared letters: eprsé. Private to "présences": cn. Private to "préservés": v.

"présences" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC  ·  "préservés" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "présences" and "préservés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "présences" is a noun and "préservés" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "présences" vs "préservés" - which ranks higher?
"présences" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,126 in our French list, against #30,755 for "préservés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "présences" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "préservés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #151,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "présences" and "préservés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "préservées vs préservés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #151,768 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