progrèsvsprogressWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,442
“progrès” frequency rank
#34,266
“progress” frequency rank
36708
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature progrès progress
Definition Mouvement en avant de la civilisation, en général ou dans un de ses domaines particuliers. Avancement (dans une série d’événements).

Where the eye mixes progrès and progress

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

7 ch
progrès
8 ch
progress

Visual trap between progrès and progress

A purely visual mix-up. progrès (\pʁɔ.ɡʁɛ\) and progress (\ˈpɹəʊ.ɡɹɛs\) 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 36708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

progrès is recorded at frequency rank #2,442, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.ɡʁɛ\. progress is at rank #34,266, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɹəʊ.ɡɹɛs\.

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 36708, this pair ranks #267,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of progrès vs progress

Shared letters: goprs. Private to "progrès": è. Private to "progress": e.

"progrès" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "progress" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • progressporgress · pprogress · prgoress · progerss · proggress · progrress · progrses · prorgess

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "progrès" and "progress" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.ɡʁɛ\ versus \ˈpɹəʊ.ɡɹɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "progrès" vs "progress" - which ranks higher?
"progrès" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,442 in our French list, against #34,266 for "progress". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "progrès" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "progress" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "progrès" and "progress" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "process vs progress". 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 #267,674 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