Which to use
“percuter” and “persécuter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,905
- “percuter” frequency rank
- #43,598
- “persécuter” frequency rank
- 73503
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | percuter | persécuter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Frapper, avec l’idée d’un choc violent. | Inquiéter, tourmenter sans relâche par des voies injustes, par des poursuites violentes. |
Where the eye mixes percuter and persécuter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. percuter runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against persécuter's 10 (CVCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between percuter and persécuter
A purely visual mix-up. percuter (\pɛʁ.ky.te\) and persécuter (\pɛʁ.se.ky.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73503, 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\. persécuter is at rank #43,598, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.se.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 73503, this pair ranks #40,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of percuter vs persécuter
Shared letters: ceprtu. Private to "percuter": -. Private to "persécuter": sé.
"percuter" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "persécuter" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- percuter ← eprcuter · pecruter · perccuter · perctuer · percuetr · percuterr · percutre · percutter
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "percuter" and "persécuter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "percuter" or "persécuter" show up more?
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 "percuter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "persécuter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "percuter" and "persécuter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "persécuter vs persécutés". 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 #40,253 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.