perdvspersoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,928
“perd” frequency rank
#2,326
“perso” frequency rank
4254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perd perso
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de perdre. Personnel.

Where the eye mixes perd and perso

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

4 ch
perd
5 ch
perso

Visual trap between perd and perso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perd is \pɛʁ\ while perso is \pɛʁ.so\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4254, 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\. perso is at rank #2,326, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.so\.

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 4254, this pair ranks #432,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perd vs perso

Shared letters: epr. Private to "perd": d. Private to "perso": os.

"perd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "perso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdeprd · pedr · perdd · perrd · pperd · pred
  • persoeprso · peros · perrso · persso · pesro · pperso · preso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perd" for "perso" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perd" is a verb and "perso" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "perd" or "perso"?
"perd" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,928 in our French list, against #2,326 for "perso". 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 "perso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perd" and "perso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pernod vs perso". 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 #432,070 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