prochainevsprochainsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: prochaine is a noun, prochains is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“prochaine” is a noun and “prochains” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#854
“prochaine” frequency rank
#5,694
“prochains” frequency rank
6548
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prochaine prochains
Definition Suivante. Masculin pluriel de prochain.

Where the eye mixes prochaine and prochains

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
prochaine
9 ch
prochains

Visual trap between prochaine and prochains

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prochaine is \pʁɔ.ʃɛn\ while prochains is \pʁɔ.ʃɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “prochaine” becomes s in “prochains”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prochaine is recorded at frequency rank #854, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.ʃɛn\. prochains is at rank #5,694, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.ʃɛ̃\.

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 6548, this pair ranks #425,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prochaine vs prochains

Shared letters: achinopr. Private to "prochaine": e. Private to "prochains": s.

"prochaine" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVVCV  ·  "prochains" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prochaineporchaine · pprochaine · prcohaine · procahine · procchaine · prochaien · prochainne · prochanie
  • prochainsporchains · pprochains · prcohains · procahins · procchains · prochainns · prochainss · prochaisn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prochaine" and "prochains" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prochaine" is a noun and "prochains" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "prochaine" vs "prochains" - which ranks higher?
"prochaine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #854 in our French list, against #5,694 for "prochains". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prochaine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prochains" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prochaine" and "prochains" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prochaines vs prochains". 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 #425,919 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list