print vs purent, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#25,447
“print” frequency rank: #23,663
“purent” frequency rank: 49110
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	print	purent
Definition	Dans la presse, ce qui est imprimé sur papier, par opposition à la forme numérique.	Troisième personne du pluriel du passé simple du verbe pouvoir.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

6 ch

purent

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: print is \pʁint\ while purent is \pyʁ\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

print is recorded at frequency rank #25,447, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁint\. purent is at rank #23,663, tagged as averb, pronounced \pyʁ\.

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 49110, this pair ranks #173,408 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of print vs purent

Shared letters: nprt. Private to "print": i. Private to "purent": eu.

"print" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "purent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

print ← pirnt · pprint · prinnt · printt · pritn · prnit · prrint · rpint
purent ← ppurent · pruent · puernt · purennt · purentt · puretn · purnet · purrent

Frequency comparison

print#25,447

purent#23,663

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "print" and "purent" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "print" is a noun and "purent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "print" or "purent"?

"purent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,663 in our French list, against #25,447 for "print". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering print vs purent

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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