percésvspersesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#34,666
“percés” frequency rank
#20,814
“perses” frequency rank
55480
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature percés perses
Definition Masculin pluriel de percé. Pluriel de perse.

Where the eye mixes percés and perses

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

6 ch
percés
6 ch
perses

Why the eye confuses percés with perses

A purely visual mix-up. percés (\pɛʁ.se\) and perses (\pɛʁs\) 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 55480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

percés is recorded at frequency rank #34,666, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.se\. perses is at rank #20,814, tagged as anadj, 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 55480, this pair ranks #127,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of percés vs perses

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "percés": . Private to "perses": -.

"percés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "perses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perseseprses · peress · perrses · persess · persses · pesres · pperses · preses

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "percés" and "perses" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.se\ versus \pɛʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "percés" or "perses"?
"perses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,814 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.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "percés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "percés" and "perses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "percés vs pètes". 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 #127,197 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