Which to use
“perf” is an adjective and “pers” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,815
- “perf” frequency rank
- #36,278
- “pers” frequency rank
- 79093
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perf | pers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Abbreviation of perforated; when followed by a number, eg, perf 14, this indicates the number of perforations per two centimetres. | That which belongs to per, theirs (singular): possessive case of per, used in place of a noun. |
Letter map: perf vs pers
Shared letters muted; letters that set perf and pers apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. perf and pers follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: perf vs pers
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: perf is anadjective and persapronoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - f in “perf” becomes s in “pers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
perf is recorded at frequency rank #42,815, classified as anadj, pronounced /pɜː(ɹ)f/. pers is at rank #36,278, tagged as apron.
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 79093, this pair ranks #22,920 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of perf vs pers
Shared letters: epr. Private to "perf": f. Private to "pers": s.
"perf" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "perf" and "pers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "perf" or "pers" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "perf" vs "pers" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "perf" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #22,920 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "perf" and "pers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs perf". 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 #22,920 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.