prononça vs prononçant, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#36,110
“prononça” frequency rank: #28,300
“prononçant” frequency rank: 64410
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	prononça	prononçant
Definition	Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de prononcer.	Participe présent de prononcer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set prononça and prononçant apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

prononça

10 ch

prononçant

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. prononça (\pʁɔ.nɔ̃.sa\) and prononçant (\pʁɔ.nɔ̃.sɑ̃\) 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 extra letter(s) - “prononça” sits inside “prononçant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64410, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prononça is recorded at frequency rank #36,110, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.nɔ̃.sa\. prononçant is at rank #28,300, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.nɔ̃.sɑ̃\.

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 64410, this pair ranks #77,217 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of prononça vs prononçant

Shared letters: anoprç. Private to "prononça": -. Private to "prononçant": t.

"prononça" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV · "prononçant" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCVCC

Frequency comparison

prononça#36,110

prononçant#28,300

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prononça" and "prononçant" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.nɔ̃.sa\ versus \pʁɔ.nɔ̃.sɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "prononça" or "prononçant"?

"prononçant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,300 in our French list, against #36,110 for "prononça". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering prononça vs prononçant

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “prononça” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable