prouvevsprouvésConfusable pair

Quick tell: prouve is a verb, prouvés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“prouve” is a verb and “prouvés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,490
“prouve” frequency rank
#46,969
“prouvés” frequency rank
50459
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prouve prouvés
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de prouver. Masculin pluriel de prouvé.

Where the eye mixes prouve and prouvés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. prouve runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against prouvés's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
prouve
7 ch
prouvés

Why the eye confuses prouve with prouvés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prouve is \pʁuv\ while prouvés is \pʁu.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 50459, 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\. prouvés is at rank #46,969, tagged as anadj, 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 50459, this pair ranks #162,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prouve vs prouvés

Shared letters: opruv. Private to "prouve": e. Private to "prouvés": sé.

"prouve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "prouvés" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prouve ← poruve · pprouve · prouev · prouvve · provue · prrouve · pruove · rpouve

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prouve" and "prouvés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prouve" is a verb and "prouvés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "prouve" vs "prouvés" - which ranks higher?
"prouve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,490 in our French list, against #46,969 for "prouvés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "prouve" and "prouvés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prouve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prouvés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prouve" and "prouvés" 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 #162,439 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