Which to use
“protégés” is an adjective and “protégez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,224
- “protégés” frequency rank
- #24,728
- “protégez” frequency rank
- 31952
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | protégés | protégez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de protégé. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de protéger. |
Same sound, different letters: protégés vs protégez
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. protégés and protégez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Homophone desk: protégés vs protégez
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: protégés and protégez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pʁɔ.te.ʒe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
protégés is recorded at frequency rank #7,224, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.te.ʒe\. protégez is at rank #24,728, tagged as averb, 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 31952, this pair ranks #300,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of protégés vs protégez
Shared letters: goprté. Private to "protégés": s. Private to "protégez": ez.
"protégés" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC · "protégez" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "protégés" for "protégez" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "protégés" or "protégez" show up more?
What to do next
"protégés" and "protégez" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "protégés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "protégez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #300,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "protégés" and "protégez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "proteger vs protégez". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #300,521 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.