Which to use
“preuve” and “prune” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #950
- “preuve” frequency rank
- #27,199
- “prune” frequency rank
- 28149
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | preuve | prune |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qui établit la véracité d’une proposition ou d’un fait. | Fruit comestible du prunier, à chair juteuse, à noyau comprenant de nombreuses variétés de forme ovoïde et de couleur allant du vert au violet en passant par le jaune. |
Where the eye mixes preuve and prune
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between preuve and prune
A purely visual mix-up. preuve (\pʁœv\) and prune (\pʁyn\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28149, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
preuve is recorded at frequency rank #950, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁœv\. prune is at rank #27,199, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁyn\.
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 28149, this pair ranks #324,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of preuve vs prune
Shared letters: epru. Private to "preuve": v. Private to "prune": n.
"preuve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "prune" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "preuve" and "prune" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "preuve" or "prune" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "preuve" and "prune" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "preuve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prune" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #324,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "preuve" and "prune" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "priée vs prune". 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 #324,612 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.