perdaisvsperdrasTell them apart

Which to use

“perdais” and “perdras” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,475
“perdais” frequency rank
#48,711
“perdras” frequency rank
86186
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perdais perdras
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de perdre. Deuxième personne du singulier du futur de perdre.

Where the eye mixes perdais and perdras

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. perdais (CVCCVVC) and perdras (CVCCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
perdais
7 ch
perdras

Why the eye confuses perdais with perdras

A purely visual mix-up. perdais (\pɛʁ.dɛ\) and perdras (\pɛʁ.dʁa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perdais is recorded at frequency rank #37,475, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.dɛ\. perdras is at rank #48,711, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.dʁa\.

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 86186, this pair ranks #10,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of perdais vs perdras

Shared letters: adeprs. Private to "perdais": i. Private to "perdras": -.

"perdais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "perdras" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdais ← eprdais · pedrais · peradis · perdaiss · perdasi · perddais · perdias · perrdais
  • perdras ← eprdras · pedrras · perdars · perddras · perdrass · perdrras · perdrsa · perrdas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perdais" for "perdras" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.dɛ\ versus \pɛʁ.dʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "perdais" or "perdras"?
"perdais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,475 in our French list, against #48,711 for "perdras". 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 "perdais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdras" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perdais" and "perdras" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perdrai vs perdras". 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 #10,112 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