procurervsprouverWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“procurer” and “prouver” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,102
“procurer” frequency rank
#2,443
“prouver” frequency rank
9545
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature procurer prouver
Definition Faire obtenir à une personne quelque avantage par son crédit, par ses soins. Établir la vérité de quelque chose par le raisonnement ou par le témoignage.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set procurer and prouver apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
procurer
7 ch
prouver

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. procurer (\pʁɔ.ky.ʁe\) 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 9545, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

procurer is recorded at frequency rank #7,102, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.ky.ʁe\. 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 9545, this pair ranks #416,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of procurer vs prouver

Shared letters: eopru. Private to "procurer": c. Private to "prouver": v.

"procurer" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC  ·  "prouver" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • procurerporcurer · pprocurer · prcourer · proccurer · procruer · procuerr · procurerr · procurre
  • prouverporuver · pprouver · prouevr · prouverr · prouvre · prouvver · provuer · prrouver

Frequency comparison

procurer#7,102
prouver#2,443

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "procurer" and "prouver" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.ky.ʁe\ versus \pʁu.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "procurer" or "prouver"?
"prouver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,443 in our French list, against #7,102 for "procurer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering procurer vs prouver

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “procurer” 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