propicevspropreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,557
“propice” frequency rank
#513
“propre” frequency rank
11070
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature propice propre
Definition Qui est favorable, en parlant de divinité, toute puissance, ou autorité dont nous pouvons dépendre. Qui est particulier à une personne ou à une chose (exclusivement ou non).

Where the eye mixes propice and propre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
propice
6 ch
propre

Visual trap between propice and propre

A purely visual mix-up. propice (\pʁɔ.pis\) and propre (\pʁɔpʁ\) 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 11070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

propice is recorded at frequency rank #10,557, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.pis\. propre is at rank #513, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔpʁ\.

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 11070, this pair ranks #410,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of propice vs propre

Shared letters: eopr. Private to "propice": ci. Private to "propre": -.

"propice" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "propre" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • propiceporpice · ppropice · proipce · propcie · propicce · propiec · proppice · prpoice
  • propreporpre · ppropre · proper · proppre · proprre · prorpe · prpore · prropre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "propice" and "propre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.pis\ versus \pʁɔpʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "propice" or "propre" show up more?
"propre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #513 in our French list, against #10,557 for "propice". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "propice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "propre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #410,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "propice" and "propre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "proféré vs propre". 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 #410,569 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