Pray is a verb meaning to speak to a god or to beg earnestly: "She prays every evening." Prey is a noun meaning the creature something hunts, and a verb meaning to hunt or exploit: "Foxes prey on rabbits"; "scammers prey on the elderly." The two sound identical in most accents, so spelling is decided entirely by meaning.
The core difference
These words share a sound and nothing else. Pray belongs to worship and pleading. Prey belongs to hunting, in both the literal sense (what a predator eats) and the figurative one (people who are targeted and taken advantage of).
Using pray
Pray is almost always a verb, and it takes for or to: you pray to someone, and for something.
- They prayed for rain after the third dry month.
- He prays quietly at the back of the chapel.
- I'm praying the results come through before Friday.
The related noun is prayer, which keeps the a of pray — the religious words are the a words.
Using prey
As a noun, prey is what gets hunted: "the eagle spotted its prey." It is uncountable in that sense, so you write prey, not preys. As a verb it is nearly always followed by on or upon:
- Barn owls prey on voles and mice.
- These loan companies prey on people who cannot get credit anywhere else.
- The worry preyed on her mind for weeks.
That last example is worth noticing: something that preys on your mind is gnawing at you. It is still the hunting word, used figuratively.
The test to run
Try swapping in a plain synonym. If plead or worship fits, you want pray. If hunt, target or victim fits, you want prey.
"They ___ for peace" — they plead for peace, so: pray. "Sharks ___ on seals" — sharks hunt seals, so: prey.
If the sound-alike still trips you up, link the a in pray to the a in praise, and the e in prey to the e in predator.
The mistake people actually make
By far the commonest slip is writing "prey for you" or "praying on the weak". Both reverse the pair. A second, subtler one: the phrase is fall prey to, never "fall pray to" — someone who falls prey to a scam has been hunted, not blessed.
One more spelling to keep separate: pray and prey both differ from pry, which means to lever something open or to nose into other people's business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it "praying on my mind" or "preying on my mind"?
Preying on my mind. The image is of something hunting you, so it takes the hunting spelling. Use it for a worry that keeps returning: "the letter preyed on my mind all week."
Is it "fall prey to" or "fall pray to"?
Fall prey to. You are the hunted thing in that phrase — the victim, not the worshipper. "Older customers often fall prey to these calls."
What is the plural of prey?
There isn't one in normal use. Prey is treated as uncountable: "the wolves brought down their prey," even when several animals are involved.