percéesvsperçuesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,905
“percées” frequency rank
#18,826
“perçues” frequency rank
46731
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature percées perçues
Definition Féminin pluriel de percé. Féminin pluriel de perçu.

Where the eye mixes percées and perçues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. percées and perçues follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
percées
7 ch
perçues

Why the eye confuses percées with perçues

A purely visual mix-up. percées (\pɛʁ.se\) and perçues (\pɛʁ.sy\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

percées is recorded at frequency rank #27,905, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.se\. perçues is at rank #18,826, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.sy\.

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 46731, this pair ranks #192,577 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of percées vs perçues

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "percées": cé. Private to "perçues": uç.

"percées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "perçues" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "percées" and "perçues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.se\ versus \pɛʁ.sy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "percées" or "perçues"?
"perçues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,826 in our French list, against #27,905 for "percées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "percées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perçues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,577 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "percées" and "perçues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "percées vs périmés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #192,577 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