perçoisvsperçusWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: perçois is a verb, perçus is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“perçois” is a verb and “perçus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,246
“perçois” frequency rank
#14,995
“perçus” frequency rank
49241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perçois perçus
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de percevoir. Masculin pluriel de perçu.

Where the eye mixes perçois and perçus

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

7 ch
perçois
6 ch
perçus

Visual trap between perçois and perçus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perçois is \pɛʁ.swa\ while perçus is \pɛʁ.sy\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perçois is recorded at frequency rank #34,246, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.swa\. perçus is at rank #14,995, 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 49241, this pair ranks #172,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perçois vs perçus

Shared letters: eprsç. Private to "perçois": io. Private to "perçus": u.

"perçois" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "perçus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perçois" and "perçus" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perçois" is a verb and "perçus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "perçois" or "perçus"?
"perçus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,995 in our French list, against #34,246 for "perçois". 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 "perçois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perçus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #172,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perçois" and "perçus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perchoir vs perçois". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #172,246 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