propvsprouWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: prop is a noun, prou is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“prop” is a noun and “prou” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,465
“prop” frequency rank
#27,198
“prou” frequency rank
68663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prop prou
Definition Pilier, pieu, poteau Assez, beaucoup.

Letter map: prop vs prou

Shared letters muted; letters that set prop and prou apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
prop
4 ch
prou

Grammar separator: prop vs prou

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: prop is anoun and prouanadverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - p in “prop” becomes u in “prou”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prop is recorded at frequency rank #41,465, classified as anoun. prou is at rank #27,198, tagged as anadv, pronounced \pʁu\.

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 68663, this pair ranks #58,219 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of prop vs prou

Shared letters: opr. Private to "prop": -. Private to "prou": u.

"prop" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "prou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • propporp · pprop · propp · prpo · prrop · rpop
  • proupprou · prrou · pruo · rpou

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prop" and "prou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prop" is a noun and "prou" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "prop" or "prou"?
"prou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,198 in our French list, against #41,465 for "prop". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "prop" vs "prou" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prop" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,219 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prop" and "prou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs prop". 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 #58,219 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