parsvsperfsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pars is a verb, perfs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pars” is a verb and “perfs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,278
“pars” frequency rank
#46,951
“perfs” frequency rank
50229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pars perfs
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe partir. Pluriel de perf.

Where the eye mixes pars and perfs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pars
5 ch
perfs

Visual trap between pars and perfs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pars is \paʁ\ while perfs is \pɛʁf\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pars is recorded at frequency rank #3,278, classified as averb, pronounced \paʁ\. perfs is at rank #46,951, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁf\.

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 50229, this pair ranks #164,266 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pars vs perfs

Shared letters: prs. Private to "pars": a. Private to "perfs": ef.

"pars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "perfs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parsaprs · parrs · parss · pasr · ppars · pras
  • perfseprfs · pefrs · perffs · perfss · perrfs · persf · pperfs · prefs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pars" and "perfs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pars" is a verb and "perfs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pars" vs "perfs" - which ranks higher?
"pars" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,278 in our French list, against #46,951 for "perfs". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perfs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #164,266 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pars" and "perfs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perfs vs pètes". 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 #164,266 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