percutervsperdurerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,905
“percuter” frequency rank
#26,127
“perdurer” frequency rank
56032
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature percuter perdurer
Definition Frapper, avec l’idée d’un choc violent. Durer un certain temps.

Where the eye mixes percuter and perdurer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. percuter and perdurer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
percuter
8 ch
perdurer

Visual trap between percuter and perdurer

A purely visual mix-up. percuter (\pɛʁ.ky.te\) and perdurer (\pɛʁ.dy.ʁe\) 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 56032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

percuter is recorded at frequency rank #29,905, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.ky.te\. perdurer is at rank #26,127, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.dy.ʁe\.

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 56032, this pair ranks #123,669 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of percuter vs perdurer

Shared letters: epru. Private to "percuter": ct. Private to "perdurer": d.

"percuter" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "perdurer" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • percuter ← eprcuter · pecruter · perccuter · perctuer · percuetr · percuterr · percutre · percutter
  • perdurer ← eprdurer · pedrurer · perddurer · perdruer · perduerr · perdurerr · perdurre · perdurrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "percuter" for "perdurer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.ky.te\ versus \pɛʁ.dy.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "percuter" vs "perdurer" - which ranks higher?
"perdurer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,127 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "percuter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdurer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,669 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "percuter" and "perdurer" 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 #123,669 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