Which to use
“priver” and “prouver” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,060
- “priver” frequency rank
- #2,443
- “prouver” frequency rank
- 11503
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | priver | prouver |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ôter à quelqu’un ce qu’il a, ce qu’il possède, l’empêcher de jouir de quelque avantage qu’il avait ou pouvait avoir, le dépouiller de quelque chose qui lui appartient. | Établir la vérité de quelque chose par le raisonnement ou par le témoignage. |
Where the eye mixes priver and prouver
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. priver runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against prouver's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses priver with prouver
A purely visual mix-up. priver (\pʁi.ve\) and prouver (\pʁu.ve\) 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 11503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
priver is recorded at frequency rank #9,060, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁi.ve\. prouver is at rank #2,443, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁu.ve\.
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 11503, this pair ranks #408,895 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of priver vs prouver
Shared letters: eprv. Private to "priver": i. Private to "prouver": ou.
"priver" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "prouver" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "priver" and "prouver" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "priver" vs "prouver" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "priver" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prouver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #408,895 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "priver" and "prouver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "priée vs priver". 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 #408,895 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.