prévoient vs prévoit, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“prévoient” and “prévoit” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,453
“prévoient” frequency rank: #4,093
“prévoit” frequency rank: 20546
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	prévoient	prévoit
Definition	Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de prévoir.	Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de prévoir.

Where the spellings diverge

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

9 ch

prévoient

7 ch

prévoit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. prévoient and prévoit are pronounced identically (\pʁe.vwa\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20546, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prévoient is recorded at frequency rank #16,453, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁe.vwa\. prévoit is at rank #4,093, 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 20546, this pair ranks #367,738 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prévoient vs prévoit

Shared letters: ioprtvé. Private to "prévoient": en. Private to "prévoit": -.

"prévoient" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVVVCC · "prévoit" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Frequency comparison

prévoient#16,453

prévoit#4,093

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prévoient" and "prévoit" be used interchangeably?

No. They are pronounced the same (\pʁe.vwa\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "prévoient" or "prévoit"?

"prévoit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,093 in our French list, against #16,453 for "prévoient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering prévoient vs prévoit

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “prévoient” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable