pendrevsperdraConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,110
“pendre” frequency rank
#16,443
“perdra” frequency rank
30553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pendre perdra
Definition Attacher une chose, une personne ou un animal en haut par une de ses parties, de manière qu’elle ne touche pas en bas. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de perdre.

Where the eye mixes pendre and perdra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pendre
6 ch
perdra

Visual trap between pendre and perdra

A purely visual mix-up. pendre (\pɑ̃dʁ\) and perdra (\pɛʁ.dʁa\) 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 30553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pendre is recorded at frequency rank #14,110, classified as averb, pronounced \pɑ̃dʁ\. perdra is at rank #16,443, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.dʁa\.

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 30553, this pair ranks #309,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pendre vs perdra

Shared letters: depr. Private to "pendre": n. Private to "perdra": a.

"pendre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "perdra" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pendreepndre · pednre · penddre · pender · pendrre · penndre · penrde · pnedre
  • perdraeprdra · pedrra · perdar · perddra · perdrra · perrda · perrdra · pperdra

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pendre" and "perdra" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɑ̃dʁ\ versus \pɛʁ.dʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pendre" vs "perdra" - which ranks higher?
"pendre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,110 in our French list, against #16,443 for "perdra". 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 "pendre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #309,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pendre" and "perdra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perdra vs perdrai". 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 #309,522 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