preuvesvsprévusTell them apart

Quick tell: preuves is a noun, prévus is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“preuves” is a noun and “prévus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,540
“preuves” frequency rank
#6,427
“prévus” frequency rank
8967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature preuves prévus
Definition Pluriel de preuve. Masculin pluriel de prévu.

Where the eye mixes preuves and prévus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. preuves runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against prévus's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
preuves
6 ch
prévus

Visual trap between preuves and prévus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: preuves is \pʁœv\ while prévus is \pʁe.vy\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

preuves is recorded at frequency rank #2,540, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁœv\. prévus is at rank #6,427, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.vy\.

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 8967, this pair ranks #418,241 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of preuves vs prévus

Shared letters: prsuv. Private to "preuves": e. Private to "prévus": é.

"preuves" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "prévus" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • preuvesperuves · ppreuves · preuevs · preuvess · preuvse · preuvves · prevues · prreuves

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "preuves" and "prévus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "preuves" is a noun and "prévus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "preuves" or "prévus" show up more?
"preuves" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,540 in our French list, against #6,427 for "prévus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "preuves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prévus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,241 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "preuves" and "prévus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prépas vs prévus". 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 #418,241 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