perdusvspertesTell them apart

Quick tell: perdus is a adjective, pertes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“perdus” is an adjective and “pertes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,799
“perdus” frequency rank
#3,485
“pertes” frequency rank
9284
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perdus pertes
Definition Masculin pluriel de perdu. Pluriel de perte.

Where the eye mixes perdus and pertes

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

6 ch
perdus
6 ch
pertes

Visual trap between perdus and pertes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perdus is \pɛʁ.dy\ while pertes is \pɛʁt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9284, 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\. pertes is at rank #3,485, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁt\.

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 9284, this pair ranks #417,193 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perdus vs pertes

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "perdus": du. Private to "pertes": t.

"perdus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pertes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perduseprdus · pedrus · perddus · perdsu · perduss · perrdus · peruds · pperdus
  • perteseprtes · perets · perrtes · pertess · pertse · perttes · petres · ppertes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perdus" for "pertes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perdus" is an adjective and "pertes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "perdus" or "pertes"?
"pertes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,485 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perdus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pertes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #417,193 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perdus" and "pertes" 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 #417,193 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