percéesvspèresTell them apart

Quick tell: percées is a adjective, pères is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#27,905
“percées” frequency rank
#5,596
“pères” frequency rank
33501
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature percées pères
Definition Féminin pluriel de percé. Pluriel de père.

Where the eye mixes percées and pères

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
percées
5 ch
pères

Visual trap between percées and pères

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: percées is \pɛʁ.se\ while pères is \pɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33501, 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\. pères is at rank #5,596, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ\.

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 33501, this pair ranks #290,210 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of percées vs pères

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "percées": . Private to "pères": è.

"percées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "pères" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "percées" and "pères" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "percées" is an adjective and "pères" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "percées" or "pères"?
"pères" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,596 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 "pères" 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 "pères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,210 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "percées" and "pères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "percées vs périmés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #290,210 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