Which to use
“percent” is a noun and “purent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,521
- “percent” frequency rank
- #23,663
- “purent” frequency rank
- 56184
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | percent | purent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fête de tradition qui se déroule cent jours avant la libération du contingent. | Troisième personne du pluriel du passé simple du verbe pouvoir. |
Where the eye mixes percent and purent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. percent runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against purent's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between percent and purent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: percent is \pɛʁ.sɑ̃\ while purent is \pyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
percent is recorded at frequency rank #32,521, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.sɑ̃\. purent is at rank #23,663, tagged as averb, pronounced \pyʁ\.
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 56184, this pair ranks #122,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of percent vs purent
Shared letters: enprt. Private to "percent": c. Private to "purent": u.
"percent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "purent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "percent" for "purent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "percent" or "purent" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "percent" and "purent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "percent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "purent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #122,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "percent" and "purent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "percent vs persans". 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 #122,684 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.