prêtezvsprêtsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#42,545
“prêtez” frequency rank
#1,972
“prêts” frequency rank
44517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prêtez prêts
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de prêter. Masculin pluriel de prêt.

Where the eye mixes prêtez and prêts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. prêtez runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against prêts's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
prêtez
5 ch
prêts

Why the eye confuses prêtez with prêts

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prêtez is \pʁɛ.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 44517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prêtez is recorded at frequency rank #42,545, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɛ.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 44517, this pair ranks #209,901 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prêtez vs prêts

Shared letters: prtê. Private to "prêtez": ez. Private to "prêts": s.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prêtez" and "prêts" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prêtez" is a verb and "prêts" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "prêtez" 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 #42,545 for "prêtez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "prêtez" 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 #209,901 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prêtez" and "prêts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prêtez vs Prez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #209,901 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