persvsPTSConfusable pair

Quick tell: pers is a pronoun, PTS is a phrase, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pers” is a pronoun and “PTS” is a phrase - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,278
“pers” frequency rank
#15,683
“PTS” frequency rank
51961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pers PTS
Definition That which belongs to per, theirs (singular): possessive case of per, used in place of a noun. Initialism of pay to surf: a business model where users are paid for viewing advertisements while browsing the World Wide Web.

Letter map: pers vs PTS

Shared letters muted; letters that set pers and PTS apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
pers
3 ch
PTS

Role in the sentence - pers and PTS

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pers is apronoun and PTSaphrase. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pers is recorded at frequency rank #36,278, classified as apron. PTS is at rank #15,683, tagged as aphrase.

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 51961, this pair ranks #161,031 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pers vs PTS

Shared letters: ps. Private to "pers": er. Private to "PTS": t.

"pers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "PTS" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perseprs · perrs · pesr · ppers

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pers" and "PTS" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pers" is a pronoun and "PTS" a phrase, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pers" vs "PTS" - which ranks higher?
"PTS" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,683 in our English list, against #36,278 for "pers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "pers" and "PTS". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "PTS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #161,031 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pers" and "PTS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs pers". 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 #161,031 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list