promisevsprompteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,275
“promise” frequency rank
#41,464
“prompte” frequency rank
52739
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature promise prompte
Definition Féminin singulier de promis. Féminin singulier de prompt.

Where the eye mixes promise and prompte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. promise (CCVCVCV) and prompte (CCVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
promise
7 ch
prompte

Look-alike desk: promise vs prompte

A purely visual mix-up. promise (\pʁɔ.miz\) and prompte (\pʁɔ̃t\) 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 52739, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

promise is recorded at frequency rank #11,275, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.miz\. prompte is at rank #41,464, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ̃t\.

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 52739, this pair ranks #145,620 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of promise vs prompte

Shared letters: emopr. Private to "promise": is. Private to "prompte": t.

"promise" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "prompte" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • promise ← pormise · ppromise · prmoise · proimse · promies · promisse · prommise · promsie
  • prompte ← pormpte · pprompte · prmopte · prommpte · prompet · promppte · promptte · promtpe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "promise" and "prompte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.miz\ versus \pʁɔ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "promise" or "prompte" show up more?
"promise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,275 in our French list, against #41,464 for "prompte". 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 "promise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prompte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,620 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "promise" and "prompte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "promené vs prompte". 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 #145,620 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