Which to use
“Perm” is a name and “permis” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,397
- “Perm” frequency rank
- #827
- “permis” frequency rank
- 34224
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Perm | permis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ville de la Russie européenne, située au pied des monts Oural. | Qui n’est pas interdit. |
Where the eye mixes Perm and permis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Perm and permis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Perm is \pɛʁm\ while permis is \pɛʁ.mi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Perm” sits inside “permis”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34224, 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\. permis is at rank #827, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.mi\.
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 34224, this pair ranks #285,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Perm vs permis
Shared letters: empr. Private to "Perm": -. Private to "permis": is.
"Perm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "permis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Perm" and "permis" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "Perm" or "permis" show up more?
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 "Perm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "permis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #285,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Perm" and "permis" 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 #285,310 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.