partesvspertesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#35,195
“partes” frequency rank
#3,485
“pertes” frequency rank
38680
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partes pertes
Definition De partir. Pluriel de perte.

Where the eye mixes partes and pertes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
partes
6 ch
pertes

Look-alike desk: partes vs pertes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: partes is \paʁt\ while pertes is \pɛʁt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “partes” becomes e in “pertes”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partes is recorded at frequency rank #35,195, classified as averb, pronounced \paʁt\. pertes is at rank #3,485, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁt\.

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 38680, this pair ranks #253,570 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of partes vs pertes

Shared letters: eprst. Private to "partes": a. Private to "pertes": -.

"partes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pertes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partesaprtes · parets · parrtes · partess · partse · parttes · patres · ppartes
  • perteseprtes · perets · perrtes · pertess · pertse · perttes · petres · ppertes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "partes" and "pertes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "partes" is a verb and "pertes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "partes" or "pertes" show up more?
"pertes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,485 in our French list, against #35,195 for "partes". 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 "partes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pertes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,570 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "partes" and "pertes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "partes 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 #253,570 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