perçuevsperdreConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#12,214
“perçue” frequency rank
#794
“perdre” frequency rank
13008
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perçue perdre
Definition Féminin singulier de perçu. Être privé de quelque chose qu’on avait, qu’on possédait.

Where the eye mixes perçue and perdre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. perçue (CVCCVV) and perdre (CVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
perçue
6 ch
perdre

Why the eye confuses perçue with perdre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perçue is \pɛʁ.sy\ while perdre is \pɛʁdʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13008, 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\. perdre is at rank #794, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁdʁ\.

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 13008, this pair ranks #402,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perçue vs perdre

Shared letters: epr. Private to "perçue": . Private to "perdre": d.

"perçue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "perdre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdreeprdre · pedrre · perddre · perder · perdrre · perrde · perrdre · pperdre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perçue" and "perdre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perçue" is an adjective and "perdre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "perçue" or "perdre" show up more?
"perdre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #794 in our French list, against #12,214 for "perçue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "perçue" and "perdre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perçue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #402,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perçue" and "perdre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pécule vs perçue". 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 #402,811 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