PéguyvsPercyConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#35,227
“Péguy” frequency rank
#18,555
“Percy” frequency rank
53782
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Péguy Percy
Definition Nom de famille attesté en France ^([Ins]), surtout connu pour Charles Péguy (1873-1914), écrivain français. Commune française, située dans le département de l’Isère.

Where the eye mixes Péguy and Percy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Péguy (CVCVV) and Percy (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Péguy
5 ch
Percy

Look-alike desk: Péguy vs Percy

A purely visual mix-up. Péguy (\pe.ɡi\) and Percy (\pɛʁ.si\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Péguy is recorded at frequency rank #35,227, classified as aname, pronounced \pe.ɡi\. Percy is at rank #18,555, tagged as aname, pronounced \pɛʁ.si\.

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 53782, this pair ranks #138,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Péguy vs Percy

Shared letters: py. Private to "Péguy": gué. Private to "Percy": cer.

"Péguy" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "Percy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Percy ← eprcy · pecry · perccy · percyy · perrcy · peryc · ppercy · precy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Péguy" for "Percy" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pe.ɡi\ versus \pɛʁ.si\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Péguy" vs "Percy" - which ranks higher?
"Percy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,555 in our French list, against #35,227 for "Péguy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Péguy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Percy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Péguy" and "Percy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pègre vs Péguy". 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 #138,398 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