perdevspéritWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,654
“perde” frequency rank
#40,446
“périt” frequency rank
54100
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perde périt
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de perdre. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de périr.

Where the eye mixes perde and périt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
perde
5 ch
périt

Look-alike desk: perde vs périt

A purely visual mix-up. perde (\pɛʁd\) and périt (\pe.ʁi\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54100, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perde is recorded at frequency rank #13,654, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁd\. périt is at rank #40,446, tagged as averb, pronounced \pe.ʁi\.

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 54100, this pair ranks #136,301 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perde vs périt

Shared letters: pr. Private to "perde": de. Private to "périt": ité.

"perde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "périt" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdeeprde · pedre · perdde · pered · pperde · prede

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perde" and "périt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁd\ versus \pe.ʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "perde" or "périt" show up more?
"perde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,654 in our French list, against #40,446 for "périt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "perde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "périt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,301 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perde" and "périt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "périt vs purin". 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 #136,301 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