Which to use
“pendre” and “perdre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,110
- “pendre” frequency rank
- #794
- “perdre” frequency rank
- 14904
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pendre | perdre |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Être privé de quelque chose qu’on avait, qu’on possédait. |
Where the eye mixes pendre and perdre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: pendre vs perdre
A purely visual mix-up. pendre (\pɑ̃dʁ\) and perdre (\pɛʁdʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - n in “pendre” becomes r in “perdre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14904, 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\. perdre is at rank #794, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁdʁ\.
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 14904, this pair ranks #394,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pendre vs perdre
Shared letters: depr. Private to "pendre": n. Private to "perdre": -.
"pendre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "perdre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pendre" and "perdre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pendre" or "perdre"?
What to do next
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 "perdre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #394,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pendre" and "perdre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pendre vs perdrez". 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 #394,689 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.