profondevsprolongeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,792
“profonde” frequency rank
#11,108
“prolonge” frequency rank
14900
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature profonde prolonge
Definition Poche d’un vêtement. Cordage qui servait, dans le tir, à réunir la pièce d’artillerie à son avant-train.

Where the eye mixes profonde and prolonge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
profonde
8 ch
prolonge

Why the eye confuses profonde with prolonge

A purely visual mix-up. profonde (\pʁɔ.fɔ̃d\) and prolonge (\pʁɔ.lɔ̃ʒ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

profonde is recorded at frequency rank #3,792, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.fɔ̃d\. prolonge is at rank #11,108, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.lɔ̃ʒ\.

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 14900, this pair ranks #394,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of profonde vs prolonge

Shared letters: enopr. Private to "profonde": df. Private to "prolonge": gl.

"profonde" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "prolonge" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • profondeporfonde · pprofonde · prfoonde · proffonde · profnode · profodne · profondde · profoned
  • prolongeporlonge · pprolonge · prloonge · prollonge · prolnoge · prologne · proloneg · prolongge

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "profonde" and "prolonge" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.fɔ̃d\ versus \pʁɔ.lɔ̃ʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "profonde" or "prolonge" show up more?
"profonde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,792 in our French list, against #11,108 for "prolonge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "profonde" and "prolonge" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "profonde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prolonge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #394,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "profonde" and "prolonge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prolonge vs prolongera". 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 #394,705 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