promenervsprônerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,743
“promener” frequency rank
#32,967
“prôner” frequency rank
40710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature promener prôner
Definition Mener, conduire, faire aller quelqu’un de côté ou d’autre, soit pour l’amuser, soit pour qu’il prenne de l’exercice. Faire le prône.

Where the eye mixes promener and prôner

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. promener runs 8 letters (CCVCVCVC) against prôner's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
promener
6 ch
prôner

Why the eye confuses promener with prôner

A purely visual mix-up. promener (\pʁɔ.mə.ne\) and prôner (\pʁo.ne\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

promener is recorded at frequency rank #7,743, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.mə.ne\. prôner is at rank #32,967, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁo.ne\.

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 40710, this pair ranks #238,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of promener vs prôner

Shared letters: enpr. Private to "promener": mo. Private to "prôner": ô.

"promener" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC  ·  "prôner" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • promenerpormener · ppromener · prmoener · proemner · promeenr · promenerr · promenner · promenre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "promener" for "prôner" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.mə.ne\ versus \pʁo.ne\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "promener" or "prôner"?
"promener" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,743 in our French list, against #32,967 for "prôner". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "promener" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prôner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #238,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "promener" and "prôner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "proféré vs prôner". 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 #238,490 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