Which to use
“perdues” is an adjective and “pères” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,213
- “perdues” frequency rank
- #5,596
- “pères” frequency rank
- 14809
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perdues | pères |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de perdu. | Pluriel de père. |
Where the eye mixes perdues and pères
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. perdues runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against pères's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: perdues vs pères
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perdues is \pɛʁ.dy\ while pères is \pɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14809, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
perdues is recorded at frequency rank #9,213, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.dy\. pères is at rank #5,596, tagged as anoun, 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 14809, this pair ranks #395,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of perdues vs pères
Shared letters: eprs. Private to "perdues": du. Private to "pères": è.
"perdues" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "pères" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- perdues ← eprdues · pedrues · perddues · perdeus · perduess · perduse · perrdues · perudes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "perdues" for "pères" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "perdues" or "pères" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "perdues" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #395,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "perdues" and "pères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perdras vs perdues". 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 #395,129 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.