perfsvspesosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,951
“perfs” frequency rank
#32,524
“pesos” frequency rank
79475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perfs pesos
Definition Pluriel de perf. Pluriel de peso.

Where the eye mixes perfs and pesos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. perfs (CVCCC) and pesos (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
perfs
5 ch
pesos

Look-alike desk: perfs vs pesos

A purely visual mix-up. perfs (\pɛʁf\) and pesos (\pə.zɔs\) 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 79475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perfs is recorded at frequency rank #46,951, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁf\. pesos is at rank #32,524, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pə.zɔs\.

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 79475, this pair ranks #23,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of perfs vs pesos

Shared letters: eps. Private to "perfs": fr. Private to "pesos": o.

"perfs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "pesos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perfs ← eprfs · pefrs · perffs · perfss · perrfs · persf · pperfs · prefs
  • pesos ← epsos · peoss · pesoss · pesso · pessos · ppesos · pseos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perfs" for "pesos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁf\ versus \pə.zɔs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "perfs" vs "pesos" - which ranks higher?
"pesos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,524 in our French list, against #46,951 for "perfs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "perfs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pesos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perfs" and "pesos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perfs vs pètes". 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 #23,207 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