Which to use
“permanents” and “pertinents” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,632
- “permanents” frequency rank
- #17,226
- “pertinents” frequency rank
- 28858
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | permanents | pertinents |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de permanent. | Masculin pluriel de pertinent. |
Where the eye mixes permanents and pertinents
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. permanents and pertinents follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: permanents vs pertinents
A purely visual mix-up. permanents (\pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃\) and pertinents (\pɛʁ.ti.nɑ̃\) 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 28858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
permanents is recorded at frequency rank #11,632, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃\. pertinents is at rank #17,226, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.ti.nɑ̃\.
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 28858, this pair ranks #320,228 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of permanents vs pertinents
Shared letters: enprst. Private to "permanents": am. Private to "pertinents": i.
"permanents" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCC · "pertinents" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- permanents ← eprmanents · pemranents · peramnents · permaennts · permanennts · permanenst · permanentss · permanentts
- pertinents ← eprtinents · peritnents · perrtinents · pertiennts · pertinennts · pertinenst · pertinentss · pertinentts
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "permanents" and "pertinents" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "permanents" or "pertinents" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "permanents" and "pertinents" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "permanents" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pertinents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #320,228 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "permanents" and "pertinents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permanences vs permanents". 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 #320,228 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.