permettrevsperpétréWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“permettre” and “perpétré” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,121
“permettre” frequency rank
#29,076
“perpétré” frequency rank
30197
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permettre perpétré
Definition Donner liberté, pouvoir de faire, de dire. Participe passé masculin singulier de perpétrer.

Where the eye mixes permettre and perpétré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. permettre runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCCV) against perpétré's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
permettre
8 ch
perpétré

Look-alike desk: permettre vs perpétré

A purely visual mix-up. permettre (\pɛʁ.mɛtʁ\) and perpétré (\pɛʁ.pe.tʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permettre is recorded at frequency rank #1,121, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛtʁ\. perpétré is at rank #29,076, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.pe.tʁe\.

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 30197, this pair ranks #311,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of permettre vs perpétré

Shared letters: eprt. Private to "permettre": m. Private to "perpétré": é.

"permettre" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV  ·  "perpétré" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permettreeprmettre · pemrettre · peremttre · permetre · permetrte · permetter · permettrre · permmettre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "permettre" and "perpétré" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.mɛtʁ\ versus \pɛʁ.pe.tʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "permettre" vs "perpétré" - which ranks higher?
"permettre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,121 in our French list, against #29,076 for "perpétré". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "permettre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perpétré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permettre" and "perpétré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perpétré vs perpétrés". 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 #311,898 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