PégasevsperseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Pégase is a name, perse is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Pégase” is a name and “perse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,226
“Pégase” frequency rank
#12,017
“perse” frequency rank
47243
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pégase perse
Definition Cheval ailé fabuleux auquel les anciens poètes ont donné des ailes et qui, selon eux, fit jaillir d’un coup de pied les eaux de l’Hippocrène. Langue parlée dans la Perse antique.

Where the eye mixes Pégase and perse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Pégase runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against perse's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Pégase
5 ch
perse

Visual trap between Pégase and perse

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pégase is \pe.ɡaz\ while perse is \pɛʁs\. 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pégase is recorded at frequency rank #35,226, classified as aname, pronounced \pe.ɡaz\. perse is at rank #12,017, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁs\.

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 47243, this pair ranks #188,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Pégase vs perse

Shared letters: eps. Private to "Pégase": agé. Private to "perse": r.

"Pégase" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "perse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perse ← eprse · perrse · persse · pperse · prese

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Pégase" and "perse" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pégase" is a name and "perse" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Pégase" or "perse"?
"perse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,017 in our French list, against #35,226 for "Pégase". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pégase" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pégase" and "perse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pégase vs pègre". 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 #188,435 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