produirevsproduiseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,969
“produire” frequency rank
#18,836
“produise” frequency rank
20805
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature produire produise
Definition Engendrer ; donner naissance. Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de produire.

Where the eye mixes produire and produise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. produire and produise follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
produire
8 ch
produise

Why the eye confuses produire with produise

A purely visual mix-up. produire (\pʁɔ.dɥiʁ\) and produise (\pʁɔ.dɥiz\) 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 a single letter - r in “produire” becomes s in “produise”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

produire is recorded at frequency rank #1,969, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.dɥiʁ\. produise is at rank #18,836, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.dɥiz\.

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 20805, this pair ranks #366,405 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of produire vs produise

Shared letters: deiopru. Private to "produire": -. Private to "produise": s.

"produire" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCV  ·  "produise" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • produireporduire · pproduire · prdouire · prodduire · prodiure · produier · produirre · produrie
  • produiseporduise · pproduise · prdouise · prodduise · prodiuse · produies · produisse · produsie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "produire" and "produise" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.dɥiʁ\ versus \pʁɔ.dɥiz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "produire" or "produise" show up more?
"produire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,969 in our French list, against #18,836 for "produise". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "produire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "produise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,405 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "produire" and "produise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "produis vs produise". 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 #366,405 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