preuvevsprouvezTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#950
“preuve” frequency rank
#34,695
“prouvez” frequency rank
35645
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature preuve prouvez
Definition Ce qui établit la véracité d’une proposition ou d’un fait. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de prouver.

Where the eye mixes preuve and prouvez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
preuve
7 ch
prouvez

Visual trap between preuve and prouvez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: preuve is \pʁœv\ while prouvez is \pʁu.ve\. 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 35645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

preuve is recorded at frequency rank #950, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁœv\. prouvez is at rank #34,695, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁu.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 35645, this pair ranks #275,249 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of preuve vs prouvez

Shared letters: epruv. Private to "preuve": -. Private to "prouvez": oz.

"preuve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "prouvez" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • preuveperuve · ppreuve · preuev · preuvve · prevue · prreuve · prueve · rpeuve
  • prouvezporuvez · pprouvez · prouevz · prouvezz · prouvvez · prouvze · provuez · prrouvez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "preuve" and "prouvez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "preuve" is a noun and "prouvez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "preuve" vs "prouvez" - which ranks higher?
"preuve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #950 in our French list, against #34,695 for "prouvez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "preuve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prouvez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,249 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "preuve" and "prouvez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prouvés vs prouvez". 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 #275,249 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