promisevspromusWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,275
“promise” frequency rank
#29,924
“promus” frequency rank
41199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature promise promus
Definition Féminin singulier de promis. Masculin pluriel de promu.

Where the eye mixes promise and promus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. promise runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against promus's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
promise
6 ch
promus

Why the eye confuses promise with promus

A purely visual mix-up. promise (\pʁɔ.miz\) and promus (\pʁɔ.my\) 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 41199, 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\. promus is at rank #29,924, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.my\.

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 41199, this pair ranks #234,878 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of promise vs promus

Shared letters: moprs. Private to "promise": ei. Private to "promus": u.

"promise" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "promus" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • promise ← pormise · ppromise · prmoise · proimse · promies · promisse · prommise · promsie
  • promus ← pormus · ppromus · prmous · prommus · promsu · promuss · proums · prromus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "promise" and "promus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.miz\ versus \pʁɔ.my\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "promise" or "promus"?
"promise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,275 in our French list, against #29,924 for "promus". 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 "promise" and "promus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "promise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "promus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #234,878 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "promise" and "promus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "produis vs promus". 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 #234,878 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