prononçavsprononcéWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: prononça is a verb, prononcé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“prononça” is a verb and “prononcé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,110
“prononça” frequency rank
#4,792
“prononcé” frequency rank
40902
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prononça prononcé
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de prononcer. Qui a été dit.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set prononça and prononcé apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
prononça
8 ch
prononcé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prononça is \pʁɔ.nɔ̃.sa\ while prononcé is \pʁɔ.nɔ̃.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40902, 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\. prononcé is at rank #4,792, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.nɔ̃.se\.

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 40902, this pair ranks #237,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prononça vs prononcé

Shared letters: nopr. Private to "prononça": . Private to "prononcé": .

"prononça" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "prononcé" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV

Frequency comparison

prononça#36,110
prononcé#4,792

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prononça" and "prononcé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prononça" is a verb and "prononcé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "prononça" or "prononcé"?
"prononcé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,792 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 prononcé

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “prononça”; for an adjective, it's “prononcé”.
  • 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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list