pricevsprimerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,050
“price” frequency rank
#31,191
“primer” frequency rank
41241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature price primer
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de pricer. Devancer, dominer, l’emporter sur quelqu’un ou sur quelque chose, y imposer sa domination. Note d’usage : À l’origine sans préposition, en ce sens il est d’ordinaire suivi désormais de sur.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set price and primer apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
price
6 ch
primer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. price (\pʁajs\) and primer (\pʁi.me\) 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 41241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

price is recorded at frequency rank #10,050, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁajs\. primer is at rank #31,191, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁi.me\.

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 41241, this pair ranks #234,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of price vs primer

Shared letters: eipr. Private to "price": c. Private to "primer": m.

"price" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "primer" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pricepirce · pprice · prcie · pricce · priec · prrice · rpice
  • primerpirmer · pprimer · priemr · primerr · primmer · primre · prmier · prrimer

Frequency comparison

price#10,050
primer#31,191

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "price" and "primer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pʁajs\ versus \pʁi.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "price" or "primer"?
"price" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,050 in our French list, against #31,191 for "primer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering price vs primer

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 “price” 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