penduevsperduConfusable pair

Quick tell: pendue is a noun, perdu is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pendue” is a noun and “perdu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,520
“pendue” frequency rank
#634
“perdu” frequency rank
33154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pendue perdu
Definition Femme pendue. Dont on n’a plus la possession, la jouissance.

Where the eye mixes pendue and perdu

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

6 ch
pendue
5 ch
perdu

Look-alike desk: pendue vs perdu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pendue is \pɑ̃.dy\ while perdu is \pɛʁ.dy\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pendue is recorded at frequency rank #32,520, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑ̃.dy\. perdu is at rank #634, 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 33154, this pair ranks #292,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pendue vs perdu

Shared letters: depu. Private to "pendue": n. Private to "perdu": r.

"pendue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "perdu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pendueepndue · pednue · penddue · pendeu · penndue · penude · pnedue · ppendue
  • perdueprdu · pedru · perddu · perrdu · perud · pperdu · predu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pendue" for "perdu" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pendue" is a noun and "perdu" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "pendue" or "perdu" show up more?
"perdu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #634 in our French list, against #32,520 for "pendue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pendue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #292,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pendue" and "perdu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pendue vs pondu". 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 #292,514 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