perdvsperdusWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,928
“perd” frequency rank
#5,799
“perdus” frequency rank
7727
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perd perdus
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de perdre. Masculin pluriel de perdu.

Where the eye mixes perd and perdus

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

4 ch
perd
6 ch
perdus

Look-alike desk: perd vs perdus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perd is \pɛʁ\ while perdus is \pɛʁ.dy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “perd” sits inside “perdus”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7727, 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\. perdus is at rank #5,799, 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 7727, this pair ranks #422,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perd vs perdus

Shared letters: depr. Private to "perd": -. Private to "perdus": su.

"perd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "perdus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdeprd · pedr · perdd · perrd · pperd · pred
  • perduseprdus · pedrus · perddus · perdsu · perduss · perrdus · peruds · pperdus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perd" for "perdus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perd" is a verb and "perdus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "perd" vs "perdus" - which ranks higher?
"perd" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,928 in our French list, against #5,799 for "perdus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "perd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #422,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perd" and "perdus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perdras vs perdus". 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 #422,302 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