périmésvspermisesTell them apart

Quick tell: périmés is a adjective, permises is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#41,990
“périmés” frequency rank
#36,529
“permises” frequency rank
78519
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature périmés permises
Definition Masculin pluriel de périmé. Participe passé féminin pluriel de permettre.

Where the eye mixes périmés and permises

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

7 ch
périmés
8 ch
permises

Why the eye confuses périmés with permises

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: périmés is \pe.ʁi.me\ while permises is \pɛʁ.miz\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78519, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

périmés is recorded at frequency rank #41,990, classified as anadj, pronounced \pe.ʁi.me\. permises is at rank #36,529, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.miz\.

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 78519, this pair ranks #25,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of périmés vs permises

Shared letters: imprs. Private to "périmés": é. Private to "permises": e.

"périmés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "permises" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permiseseprmises · pemrises · perimses · permiess · permisess · permisses · permmises · permsies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "périmés" for "permises" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "périmés" is an adjective and "permises" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "périmés" or "permises"?
"permises" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,529 in our French list, against #41,990 for "périmés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "périmés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "périmés" and "permises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "périmés vs primée". 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 #25,533 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