percéevspercésWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#11,826
“percée” frequency rank
#34,666
“percés” frequency rank
46492
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature percée percés
Definition Ouverture pratiquée soit pour faire un chemin, soit pour se procurer un point de vue. Masculin pluriel de percé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set percée and percés apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
percée
6 ch
percés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: percée and percés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɛʁ.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “percée” becomes s in “percés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

percée is recorded at frequency rank #11,826, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.se\. percés is at rank #34,666, tagged as anadj, 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 46492, this pair ranks #194,501 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of percée vs percés

Shared letters: cepré. Private to "percée": -. Private to "percés": s.

"percée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "percés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequency comparison

percée#11,826
percés#34,666

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "percée" and "percés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "percée" is a noun and "percés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "percée" or "percés"?
"percée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,826 in our French list, against #34,666 for "percés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering percée vs percés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “percée”; for an adjective, it's “percés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “percée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list