perçusvspermisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,995
“perçus” frequency rank
#827
“permis” frequency rank
15822
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perçus permis
Definition Masculin pluriel de perçu. Qui n’est pas interdit.

Where the eye mixes perçus and permis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
perçus
6 ch
permis

Why the eye confuses perçus with permis

A purely visual mix-up. perçus (\pɛʁ.sy\) and permis (\pɛʁ.mi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15822, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perçus is recorded at frequency rank #14,995, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.sy\. permis is at rank #827, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.mi\.

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 15822, this pair ranks #390,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perçus vs permis

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "perçus": . Private to "permis": im.

"perçus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "permis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permiseprmis · pemris · perims · permiss · permmis · permsi · perrmis · ppermis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perçus" and "permis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.sy\ versus \pɛʁ.mi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "perçus" vs "permis" - which ranks higher?
"permis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #827 in our French list, against #14,995 for "perçus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "perçus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #390,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perçus" and "permis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perçus vs perfs". 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 #390,697 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