perdvsperfsTell them apart

Quick tell: perd is a verb, perfs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,928
“perd” frequency rank
#46,951
“perfs” frequency rank
48879
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perd perfs
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de perdre. Pluriel de perf.

Where the eye mixes perd and perfs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
perd
5 ch
perfs

Look-alike desk: perd vs perfs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perd is \pɛʁ\ while perfs is \pɛʁf\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48879, 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\. perfs is at rank #46,951, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁf\.

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 48879, this pair ranks #175,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perd vs perfs

Shared letters: epr. Private to "perd": d. Private to "perfs": fs.

"perd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "perfs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdeprd · pedr · perdd · perrd · pperd · pred
  • perfseprfs · pefrs · perffs · perfss · perrfs · persf · pperfs · prefs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perd" for "perfs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perd" is a verb and "perfs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "perd" or "perfs" show up more?
"perd" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,928 in our French list, against #46,951 for "perfs". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "perfs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perd" and "perfs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perfs vs pètes". 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 #175,307 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