percésvspiresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,666
“percés” frequency rank
#4,700
“pires” frequency rank
39366
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature percés pires
Definition Masculin pluriel de percé. Pluriel de pire.

Where the eye mixes percés and pires

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
percés
5 ch
pires

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. percés (\pɛʁ.se\) and pires (\piʁ\) 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 39366, 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\. pires is at rank #4,700, tagged as anadj, pronounced \piʁ\.

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 39366, this pair ranks #248,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of percés vs pires

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "percés": . Private to "pires": i.

"percés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • piresipres · piers · piress · pirres · ppires

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "percés" and "pires" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.se\ versus \piʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "percés" or "pires"?
"pires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,700 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list