perdusvspermisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,799
“perdus” frequency rank
#827
“permis” frequency rank
6626
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perdus permis
Definition Masculin pluriel de perdu. Qui n’est pas interdit.

Where the eye mixes perdus and permis

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

6 ch
perdus
6 ch
permis

Why the eye confuses perdus with permis

A purely visual mix-up. perdus (\pɛʁ.dy\) and permis (\pɛʁ.mi\) 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 6626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perdus is recorded at frequency rank #5,799, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.dy\. permis is at rank #827, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.mi\.

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 6626, this pair ranks #425,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perdus vs permis

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "perdus": du. Private to "permis": im.

"perdus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "permis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perduseprdus · pedrus · perddus · perdsu · perduss · perrdus · peruds · pperdus
  • permiseprmis · pemris · perims · permiss · permmis · permsi · perrmis · ppermis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perdus" and "permis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.dy\ versus \pɛʁ.mi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "perdus" or "permis"?
"permis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #827 in our French list, against #5,799 for "perdus". 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 "perdus" and "permis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perdus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perdus" and "permis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perdras vs perdus". 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 #425,713 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