percevsperfTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,016
“perce” frequency rank
#24,321
“perf” frequency rank
42337
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perce perf
Definition Outil pour percer. Performance.

Where the eye mixes perce and perf

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
perce
4 ch
perf

Why the eye confuses perce with perf

A purely visual mix-up. perce (\pɛʁs\) and perf (\pɛʁf\) 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 42337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perce is recorded at frequency rank #18,016, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁs\. perf is at rank #24,321, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁf\.

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 42337, this pair ranks #226,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perce vs perf

Shared letters: epr. Private to "perce": c. Private to "perf": f.

"perce" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "perf" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perceeprce · pecre · percce · perec · perrce · pperce · prece
  • perfeprf · pefr · perff · perrf · pperf · pref

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perce" and "perf" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁs\ versus \pɛʁf\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "perce" vs "perf" - which ranks higher?
"perce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,016 in our French list, against #24,321 for "perf". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "perce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perf" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #226,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perce" and "perf" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs perf". 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 #226,375 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