pervspiepConfusable pair

Quick tell: per is a preposition, piep is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#673
“per” frequency rank
#43,410
“piep” frequency rank
44083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature per piep
Definition mittels der Laut eines Pfeifens

Where the eye mixes per and piep

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

3 ch
per
4 ch
piep

Visual trap between per and piep

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: per is [pɛʁ] while piep is [piːp]. 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 (preposition vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

per is recorded at frequency rank #673, classified as aprep, pronounced [pɛʁ]. piep is at rank #43,410, tagged as anintj, pronounced [piːp].

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 44083, this pair ranks #1,397,577 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of per vs piep

Shared letters: ep. Private to "per": r. Private to "piep": i.

"per" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "piep" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • piepipep · peip · piepp · ppiep

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "per" for "piep" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "per" is a preposition and "piep" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "per" vs "piep" - which ranks higher?
"per" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #673 in our German list, against #43,410 for "piep". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "per" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "piep" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,397,577 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "per" and "piep" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piep vs pig". 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 #1,397,577 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list