perdsvspersosWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#5,378
“perds” frequency rank
#18,557
“persos” frequency rank
23935
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perds persos
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de perdre. Pluriel de perso.

Where the eye mixes perds and persos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
perds
6 ch
persos

Visual trap between perds and persos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perds is \pɛʁ\ while persos 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 23935, 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\. persos is at rank #18,557, 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 23935, this pair ranks #349,624 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perds vs persos

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "perds": d. Private to "persos": o.

"perds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "persos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdseprds · pedrs · perdds · perdss · perrds · persd · pperds · preds
  • persoseprsos · peross · perrsos · persoss · perssos · pesros · ppersos · presos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perds" for "persos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perds" is a verb and "persos" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "perds" vs "persos" - which ranks higher?
"perds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,378 in our French list, against #18,557 for "persos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "perds" and "persos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "persos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #349,624 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perds" and "persos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pernod vs persos". 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 #349,624 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