penduvsperdueConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,756
“pendu” frequency rank
#4,009
“perdue” frequency rank
18765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pendu perdue
Definition Attaché en hauteur à quelque chose. Féminin singulier de perdu.

Where the eye mixes pendu and perdue

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

5 ch
pendu
6 ch
perdue

Visual trap between pendu and perdue

A purely visual mix-up. pendu (\pɑ̃.dy\) and perdue (\pɛʁ.dy\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pendu is recorded at frequency rank #14,756, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɑ̃.dy\. perdue is at rank #4,009, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.dy\.

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 18765, this pair ranks #376,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pendu vs perdue

Shared letters: depu. Private to "pendu": n. Private to "perdue": r.

"pendu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "perdue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • penduepndu · pednu · penddu · penndu · penud · pnedu · ppendu
  • perdueeprdue · pedrue · perddue · perdeu · perrdue · perude · pperdue · predue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pendu" and "perdue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɑ̃.dy\ versus \pɛʁ.dy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pendu" or "perdue"?
"perdue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,009 in our French list, against #14,756 for "pendu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "pendu" and "perdue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pendu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #376,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pendu" and "perdue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pendu vs peng". 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 #376,678 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