promenévspromiseTell them apart

Quick tell: promené is a verb, promise is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“promené” is a verb and “promise” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,951
“promené” frequency rank
#11,275
“promise” frequency rank
51226
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature promené promise
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de promener. Féminin singulier de promis.

Where the eye mixes promené and promise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. promené and promise follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
promené
7 ch
promise

Why the eye confuses promené with promise

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: promené is \pʁɔ.mə.ne\ while promise is \pʁɔ.miz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

promené is recorded at frequency rank #39,951, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.mə.ne\. promise is at rank #11,275, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.miz\.

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 51226, this pair ranks #156,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of promené vs promise

Shared letters: emopr. Private to "promené": né. Private to "promise": is.

"promené" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "promise" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • promise ← pormise · ppromise · prmoise · proimse · promies · promisse · prommise · promsie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "promené" for "promise" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "promené" is a verb and "promise" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "promené" or "promise"?
"promise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,275 in our French list, against #39,951 for "promené". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "promené" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "promise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #156,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "promené" and "promise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "proféré vs promené". 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 #156,619 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