Which to use
“protégeons” is a verb and “protégés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,374
- “protégeons” frequency rank
- #7,224
- “protégés” frequency rank
- 53598
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | protégeons | protégés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de protéger. | Masculin pluriel de protégé. |
Where the eye mixes protégeons and protégés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: protégeons vs protégés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: protégeons is \pʁɔ.te.ʒɔ̃\ while protégés is \pʁɔ.te.ʒe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53598, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
protégeons is recorded at frequency rank #46,374, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.te.ʒɔ̃\. protégés is at rank #7,224, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.te.ʒe\.
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 53598, this pair ranks #139,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of protégeons vs protégés
Shared letters: goprsté. Private to "protégeons": en. Private to "protégés": -.
"protégeons" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCC · "protégés" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "protégeons" for "protégés" ever safe?
Which is more common, "protégeons" or "protégés"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "protégeons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "protégés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #139,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "protégeons" and "protégés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "protégeant vs protégeons". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #139,637 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.