Which to use
“Perm” is a name and “permet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,397
- “Perm” frequency rank
- #456
- “permet” frequency rank
- 33853
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Perm | permet |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ville de la Russie européenne, située au pied des monts Oural. | Troisième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de permettre. |
Where the eye mixes Perm and permet
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Perm with permet
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Perm is \pɛʁm\ while permet is \pɛʁ.mɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Perm” sits inside “permet”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33853, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Perm is recorded at frequency rank #33,397, classified as aname, pronounced \pɛʁm\. permet is at rank #456, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛ\.
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 33853, this pair ranks #287,835 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Perm vs permet
Shared letters: empr. Private to "Perm": -. Private to "permet": t.
"Perm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "permet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Perm" for "permet" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Perm" vs "permet" - which ranks higher?
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 "Perm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "permet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #287,835 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Perm" and "permet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs Perm". 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 #287,835 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.