pensezvsPerséeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pensez is a verb, Persée is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pensez” is a verb and “Persée” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,782
“pensez” frequency rank
#37,476
“Persée” frequency rank
39258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pensez Persée
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de penser. Sauveur d’Andromède, fille de Céphée et Cassiopée.

Where the eye mixes pensez and Persée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pensez (CVCCVC) and Persée (CVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
pensez
6 ch
Persée

Visual trap between pensez and Persée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pensez is \pɑ̃.se\ while Persée is \pɛʁ.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pensez is recorded at frequency rank #1,782, classified as averb, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\. Persée is at rank #37,476, tagged as aname, pronounced \pɛʁ.se\.

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 39258, this pair ranks #249,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pensez vs Persée

Shared letters: eps. Private to "pensez": nz. Private to "Persée": ré.

"pensez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Persée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pensez ← epnsez · penesz · pennsez · pensezz · penssez · pensze · pesnez · pnesez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pensez" for "Persée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pensez" is a verb and "Persée" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pensez" or "Persée"?
"pensez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,782 in our French list, against #37,476 for "Persée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pensez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Persée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #249,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pensez" and "Persée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Persée vs priée". 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 #249,326 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