péritvspersilConfusable pair

Quick tell: périt is a verb, persil is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“périt” is a verb and “persil” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,446
“périt” frequency rank
#25,434
“persil” frequency rank
65880
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature périt persil
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de périr. Plante potagère aromatique de la famille des apiacées qui ressemble au cerfeuil et qui sert à divers usages pour la cuisine.

Where the eye mixes périt and persil

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
périt
6 ch
persil

Why the eye confuses périt with persil

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: périt is \pe.ʁi\ while persil is \pɛʁ.sil\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

périt is recorded at frequency rank #40,446, classified as averb, pronounced \pe.ʁi\. persil is at rank #25,434, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.sil\.

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 65880, this pair ranks #70,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of périt vs persil

Shared letters: ipr. Private to "périt": . Private to "persil": els.

"périt" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "persil" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • persileprsil · perisl · perrsil · persill · persli · perssil · pesril · ppersil

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "périt" and "persil" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "périt" is a verb and "persil" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "périt" vs "persil" - which ranks higher?
"persil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,434 in our French list, against #40,446 for "périt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "périt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "persil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "périt" and "persil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "périt vs purin". 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 #70,368 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