perdvsperdueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: perd is a verb, perdue is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,928
“perd” frequency rank
#4,009
“perdue” frequency rank
5937
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perd perdue
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de perdre. Féminin singulier de perdu.

Where the eye mixes perd and perdue

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

4 ch
perd
6 ch
perdue

Look-alike desk: perd vs perdue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perd is \pɛʁ\ while perdue is \pɛʁ.dy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “perd” sits inside “perdue”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5937, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perd is recorded at frequency rank #1,928, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ\. perdue is at rank #4,009, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.dy\.

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 5937, this pair ranks #427,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perd vs perdue

Shared letters: depr. Private to "perd": -. Private to "perdue": u.

"perd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "perdue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdeprd · pedr · perdd · perrd · pperd · pred
  • perdueeprdue · pedrue · perddue · perdeu · perrdue · perude · pperdue · predue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perd" and "perdue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perd" is a verb and "perdue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "perd" or "perdue"?
"perd" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,928 in our French list, against #4,009 for "perdue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #427,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perd" and "perdue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perd vs pernod". 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 #427,628 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