perceusevsperçueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: perceuse is a noun, perçue is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#31,175
“perceuse” frequency rank
#12,214
“perçue” frequency rank
43389
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perceuse perçue
Definition Outil permettant de percer, de faire des trous, généralement à l’aide d’un foret rotatif. Féminin singulier de perçu.

Where the eye mixes perceuse and perçue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

8 ch
perceuse
6 ch
perçue

Why the eye confuses perceuse with perçue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perceuse is \pɛʁ.søz\ while perçue is \pɛʁ.sy\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43389, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perceuse is recorded at frequency rank #31,175, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.søz\. perçue is at rank #12,214, 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 43389, this pair ranks #218,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perceuse vs perçue

Shared letters: epru. Private to "perceuse": cs. Private to "perçue": ç.

"perceuse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "perçue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perceuseeprceuse · pecreuse · percceuse · percesue · perceues · perceusse · percuese · perecuse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perceuse" for "perçue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perceuse" is a noun and "perçue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "perceuse" or "perçue"?
"perçue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,214 in our French list, against #31,175 for "perceuse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "perceuse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perçue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perceuse" and "perçue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perceuse vs poreuse". 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 #218,418 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