per vs peu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“per” is a preposition and “peu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#673
“per” frequency rank: #40,134
“peu” frequency rank: 40807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	per	peu
Definition	mittels	der Fuß; der unterste Abschnitt der Beine der Wirbeltiere, bei den Primaten und dem Menschen nur der beiden hinteren/unteren Extremitäten

Where the eye mixes per and peu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

per

3 ch

peu

Why the eye confuses per with peu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: per is [pɛʁ] while peu is [pɛw]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “per” becomes u in “peu”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

per is recorded at frequency rank #673, classified as aprep, pronounced [pɛʁ]. peu is at rank #40,134, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pɛw].

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 40807, this pair ranks #1,497,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of per vs peu

Shared letters: ep. Private to "per": r. Private to "peu": u.

"per" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "peu" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "per" for "peu" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "per" is a preposition and "peu" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "per" or "peu" show up more?

"per" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #673 in our German list, against #40,134 for "peu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "per" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "peu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,497,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"per" and "peu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peu vs PMS". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,497,726 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.