Which to use
“percée” and “perse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,826
- “percée” frequency rank
- #12,017
- “perse” frequency rank
- 23843
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | percée | perse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ouverture pratiquée soit pour faire un chemin, soit pour se procurer un point de vue. | Langue parlée dans la Perse antique. |
Where the eye mixes percée and perse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses percée with perse
A purely visual mix-up. percée (\pɛʁ.se\) and perse (\pɛʁs\) 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 23843, 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\. perse is at rank #12,017, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁs\.
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 23843, this pair ranks #350,131 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of percée vs perse
Shared letters: epr. Private to "percée": cé. Private to "perse": s.
"percée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "perse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- perse ← eprse · perrse · persse · pperse · prese
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "percée" for "perse" ever safe?
Which is more common, "percée" or "perse"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "percée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "perse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #350,131 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "percée" and "perse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "percée 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 #350,131 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.