perçuevspercuterConfusable pair

Quick tell: perçue is a adjective, percuter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#12,214
“perçue” frequency rank
#29,905
“percuter” frequency rank
42119
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perçue percuter
Definition Féminin singulier de perçu. Frapper, avec l’idée d’un choc violent.

Where the eye mixes perçue and percuter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. perçue runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against percuter's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
perçue
8 ch
percuter

Look-alike desk: perçue vs percuter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perçue is \pɛʁ.sy\ while percuter is \pɛʁ.ky.te\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perçue is recorded at frequency rank #12,214, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.sy\. percuter is at rank #29,905, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.ky.te\.

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 42119, this pair ranks #228,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perçue vs percuter

Shared letters: epru. Private to "perçue": ç. Private to "percuter": ct.

"perçue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "percuter" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • percuter ← eprcuter · pecruter · perccuter · perctuer · percuetr · percuterr · percutre · percutter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perçue" and "percuter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perçue" is an adjective and "percuter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "perçue" vs "percuter" - which ranks higher?
"perçue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,214 in our French list, against #29,905 for "percuter". 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 "perçue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "percuter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perçue" and "percuter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "percuter vs persécuter". 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 #228,087 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