PerservsPersonWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Perser” and “Person” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#26,124
“Perser” frequency rank
#445
“Person” frequency rank
26569
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Perser Person
Definition Angehöriger eines orientalischen Volkes ein Mensch

Where the eye mixes Perser and Person

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Perser and Person follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Perser
6 ch
Person

Look-alike desk: Perser vs Person

A purely visual mix-up. Perser ([ˈpɛʁzɐ]) and Person ([pɛʁˈzoːn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Perser is recorded at frequency rank #26,124, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpɛʁzɐ]. Person is at rank #445, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pɛʁˈzoːn].

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 26569, this pair ranks #1,816,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Perser vs Person

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "Perser": -. Private to "Person": no.

"Perser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Person" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Perser ← eprser · peresr · perrser · perserr · persre · persser · pesrer · pperser
  • Person ← eprson · perosn · perrson · persno · personn · persson · pesron · pperson

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Perser" and "Person" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpɛʁzɐ] versus [pɛʁˈzoːn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Perser" or "Person"?
"Person" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #445 in our German list, against #26,124 for "Perser". 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 "Perser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Person" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,816,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Perser" and "Person" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Perser vs Perseus". 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 #1,816,023 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