perdsvspersWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#5,378
“perds” frequency rank
#17,512
“pers” frequency rank
22890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perds pers
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de perdre. Qui est entre le bleu et le vert (surtout en parlant des yeux).

Same sound, different letters: perds vs pers

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

5 ch
perds
4 ch
pers

Same sound, different spelling - perds / pers

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: perds and pers carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɛʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perds is recorded at frequency rank #5,378, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ\. pers is at rank #17,512, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ\.

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 22890, this pair ranks #355,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perds vs pers

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "perds": d. Private to "pers": -.

"perds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "pers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdseprds · pedrs · perdds · perdss · perrds · persd · pperds · preds
  • perseprs · perrs · pesr · ppers

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perds" and "pers" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perds" is a verb and "pers" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "perds" vs "pers" - which ranks higher?
"perds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,378 in our French list, against #17,512 for "pers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "perds" / "pers". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #355,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perds" and "pers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs pers". 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 #355,541 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