prêtervsprêtsTell them apart

Quick tell: prêter is a verb, prêts is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“prêter” is a verb and “prêts” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,910
“prêter” frequency rank
#1,972
“prêts” frequency rank
7882
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prêter prêts
Definition Fournir, donner. Masculin pluriel de prêt.

Where the eye mixes prêter and prêts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
prêter
5 ch
prêts

Look-alike desk: prêter vs prêts

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prêter is \pʁe.te\ while prêts is \pʁɛ\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prêter is recorded at frequency rank #5,910, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁe.te\. prêts is at rank #1,972, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɛ\.

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 7882, this pair ranks #421,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prêter vs prêts

Shared letters: prtê. Private to "prêter": e. Private to "prêts": s.

"prêter" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "prêts" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prêter" and "prêts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prêter" is a verb and "prêts" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "prêter" or "prêts" show up more?
"prêts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,972 in our French list, against #5,910 for "prêter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "prêter" and "prêts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prêter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prêts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #421,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prêter" and "prêts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pètes vs prêter". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #421,840 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