Which to use
“privé” is an adjective and “prouve” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,273
- “privé” frequency rank
- #3,490
- “prouve” frequency rank
- 4763
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | privé | prouve |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Particulier, sans caractère public. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de prouver. |
Where the eye mixes privé and prouve
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses privé with prouve
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: privé is \pʁi.ve\ while prouve is \pʁuv\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
privé is recorded at frequency rank #1,273, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁi.ve\. prouve is at rank #3,490, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁuv\.
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 4763, this pair ranks #430,759 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of privé vs prouve
Shared letters: prv. Private to "privé": ié. Private to "prouve": eou.
"privé" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "prouve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- prouve ← poruve · pprouve · prouev · prouvve · provue · prrouve · pruove · rpouve
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "privé" for "prouve" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "privé" or "prouve" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "privé" and "prouve" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "privé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prouve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #430,759 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "privé" and "prouve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prouve vs prude". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #430,759 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.