parléesvspercéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“parlées” and “percées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#36,990
“parlées” frequency rank
#27,905
“percées” frequency rank
64895
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parlées percées
Definition Féminin pluriel de parlé. Féminin pluriel de percé.

Where the eye mixes parlées and percées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. parlées and percées follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
parlées
7 ch
percées

Look-alike desk: parlées vs percées

A purely visual mix-up. parlées (\paʁ.le\) and percées (\pɛʁ.se\) 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 64895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parlées is recorded at frequency rank #36,990, classified as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.le\. percées is at rank #27,905, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.se\.

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 64895, this pair ranks #74,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of parlées vs percées

Shared letters: eprsé. Private to "parlées": al. Private to "percées": c.

"parlées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "percées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parlées" for "percées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.le\ versus \pɛʁ.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "parlées" or "percées"?
"percées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,905 in our French list, against #36,990 for "parlées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "parlées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "percées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parlées" and "percées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parlées vs parlers". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #74,844 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list