Which to use
“permettent” and “perpétuent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,881
- “permettent” frequency rank
- #40,415
- “perpétuent” frequency rank
- 42296
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | permettent | perpétuent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de permettre. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de perpétuer. |
Where the eye mixes permettent and perpétuent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. permettent (CVCCVCCVCC) and perpétuent (CVCCVCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: permettent vs perpétuent
A purely visual mix-up. permettent (\pɛʁ.mɛt\) and perpétuent (\pɛʁ.pe.ty\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
permettent is recorded at frequency rank #1,881, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛt\. perpétuent is at rank #40,415, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.pe.ty\.
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 42296, this pair ranks #226,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of permettent vs perpétuent
Shared letters: enprt. Private to "permettent": m. Private to "perpétuent": ué.
"permettent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC · "perpétuent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- permettent ← eprmettent · pemrettent · peremttent · permetent · permetetnt · permettennt · permettentt · permettetn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "permettent" for "perpétuent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "permettent" or "perpétuent" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "permettent" and "perpétuent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "permettent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "perpétuent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #226,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "permettent" and "perpétuent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perpétue vs perpétuent". 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 #226,689 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.