priéevsproiesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: priée is a verb, proies is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“priée” is a verb and “proies” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,295
“priée” frequency rank
#21,121
“proies” frequency rank
70416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature priée proies
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de prier. Pluriel de proie.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
priée
6 ch
proies

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: priée is \pʁi.je\ while proies is \pʁwa\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

priée is recorded at frequency rank #49,295, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁi.je\. proies is at rank #21,121, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁwa\.

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 70416, this pair ranks #51,392 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of priée vs proies

Shared letters: eipr. Private to "priée": é. Private to "proies": os.

"priée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV  ·  "proies" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • proiespories · pproies · prioes · proeis · proiess · proise · prroies · rpoies

Frequency comparison

priée#49,295
proies#21,121

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "priée" and "proies" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "priée" is a verb and "proies" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "priée" or "proies"?
"proies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,121 in our French list, against #49,295 for "priée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering priée vs proies

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “priée”; for a noun, it's “proies”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “priée” 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