pronomvsproposTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,733
“pronom” frequency rank
#561
“propos” frequency rank
22294
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pronom propos
Definition Mot-outil qui peut prendre la place d’un syntagme nominal. Paroles échangées dans la conversation.

Where the eye mixes pronom and propos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pronom
6 ch
propos

Visual trap between pronom and propos

A purely visual mix-up. pronom (\pʁɔ.nɔ̃\) and propos (\pʁɔ.po\) 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 22294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pronom is recorded at frequency rank #21,733, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.nɔ̃\. propos is at rank #561, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.po\.

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 22294, this pair ranks #358,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pronom vs propos

Shared letters: opr. Private to "pronom": mn. Private to "propos": s.

"pronom" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "propos" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pronompornom · ppronom · prnoom · pronmo · pronnom · pronomm · proonm · prronom
  • proposporpos · ppropos · proops · proposs · proppos · propso · prpoos · prropos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pronom" and "propos" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.nɔ̃\ versus \pʁɔ.po\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pronom" or "propos"?
"propos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #561 in our French list, against #21,733 for "pronom". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pronom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "propos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #358,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pronom" and "propos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prônée vs pronom". 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 #358,768 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