prouvevsprouvéesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,490
“prouve” frequency rank
#39,475
“prouvées” frequency rank
42965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prouve prouvées
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de prouver. Participe passé féminin pluriel de prouver.

Where the eye mixes prouve and prouvées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
prouve
8 ch
prouvées

Look-alike desk: prouve vs prouvées

A purely visual mix-up. prouve (\pʁuv\) and prouvées (\pʁu.ve\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prouve is recorded at frequency rank #3,490, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁuv\. prouvées is at rank #39,475, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁu.ve\.

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 42965, this pair ranks #221,620 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prouve vs prouvées

Shared letters: eopruv. Private to "prouve": -. Private to "prouvées": .

"prouve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "prouvées" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prouveporuve · pprouve · prouev · prouvve · provue · prrouve · pruove · rpouve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prouve" for "prouvées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pʁuv\ versus \pʁu.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "prouve" or "prouvées" show up more?
"prouve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,490 in our French list, against #39,475 for "prouvées". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prouve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prouvées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,620 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prouve" and "prouvées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prouvées vs prouvés". 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 #221,620 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