persvspersanWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,512
“pers” frequency rank
#22,647
“persan” frequency rank
40159
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pers persan
Definition Qui est entre le bleu et le vert (surtout en parlant des yeux). Relatif à la Perse.

Where the eye mixes pers and persan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pers
6 ch
persan

Look-alike desk: pers vs persan

A purely visual mix-up. pers (\pɛʁ\) and persan (\pɛʁ.sɑ̃\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “pers” sits inside “persan”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pers is recorded at frequency rank #17,512, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ\. persan is at rank #22,647, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.sɑ̃\.

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 40159, this pair ranks #242,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pers vs persan

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "pers": -. Private to "persan": an.

"pers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "persan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perseprs · perrs · pesr · ppers
  • persaneprsan · perasn · perrsan · persann · persna · perssan · pesran · ppersan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pers" for "persan" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ\ versus \pɛʁ.sɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "pers" or "persan" show up more?
"pers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,512 in our French list, against #22,647 for "persan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "pers" and "persan" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "persan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #242,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pers" and "persan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "persan vs persans". 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 #242,599 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