presservspressezWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“presser” and “pressez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,037
“presser” frequency rank
#43,082
“pressez” frequency rank
56119
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature presser pressez
Definition Exercer une pression ; serrer plus ou moins fort. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de presser.

Where the eye mixes presser and pressez

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

7 ch
presser
7 ch
pressez

Look-alike desk: presser vs pressez

A purely visual mix-up. presser (\pʁe.se\) and pressez (\pʁɛ.se\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “presser” becomes z in “pressez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

presser is recorded at frequency rank #13,037, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁe.se\. pressez is at rank #43,082, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁɛ.se\.

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 56119, this pair ranks #123,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of presser vs pressez

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "presser": -. Private to "pressez": z.

"presser" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "pressez" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • presserpersser · ppresser · preser · presesr · presserr · pressre · prresser · prseser
  • pressezperssez · ppressez · presesz · presez · pressezz · pressze · prressez · prsesez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "presser" and "pressez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pʁe.se\ versus \pʁɛ.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "presser" vs "pressez" - which ranks higher?
"presser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,037 in our French list, against #43,082 for "pressez". 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 "presser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pressez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "presser" and "pressez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pressées vs pressez". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #123,142 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