prévalentvsprévoientWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: prévalent is a adjective, prévoient is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#41,980
“prévalent” frequency rank
#16,453
“prévoient” frequency rank
58433
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prévalent prévoient
Definition Répandu, prédominant. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de prévoir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set prévalent and prévoient apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch
prévalent
9 ch
prévoient

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prévalent is \pʁe.va.lɑ̃\ while prévoient is \pʁe.vwa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prévalent is recorded at frequency rank #41,980, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.va.lɑ̃\. prévoient is at rank #16,453, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁe.vwa\.

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 58433, this pair ranks #109,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of prévalent vs prévoient

Shared letters: enprtvé. Private to "prévalent": al. Private to "prévoient": io.

"prévalent" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCC  ·  "prévoient" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVVVCC

Frequency comparison

prévalent#41,980
prévoient#16,453

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prévalent" and "prévoient" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prévalent" is an adjective and "prévoient" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "prévalent" or "prévoient"?
"prévoient" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,453 in our French list, against #41,980 for "prévalent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering prévalent vs prévoient

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “prévalent”; for a verb, it's “prévoient”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “prévalent” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list