Which to use
“promener” and “provenir” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,743
- “promener” frequency rank
- #19,116
- “provenir” frequency rank
- 26859
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | promener | provenir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mener, conduire, faire aller quelqu’un de côté ou d’autre, soit pour l’amuser, soit pour qu’il prenne de l’exercice. | Procéder ; venir ; dériver ; résulter. |
Where the eye mixes promener and provenir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. promener and provenir follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses promener with provenir
A purely visual mix-up. promener (\pʁɔ.mə.ne\) and provenir (\pʁɔv.niʁ\) 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 26859, 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\. provenir is at rank #19,116, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁɔv.niʁ\.
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 26859, this pair ranks #332,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of promener vs provenir
Shared letters: enopr. Private to "promener": m. Private to "provenir": iv.
"promener" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC · "provenir" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "promener" and "provenir" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "promener" vs "provenir" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "promener" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "provenir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #332,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "promener" and "provenir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "promené vs promener". 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 #332,404 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.