persvsporesTell them apart

Quick tell: pers is a adjective, pores is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pers” is an adjective and “pores” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,512
“pers” frequency rank
#25,082
“pores” frequency rank
42594
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pers pores
Definition Qui est entre le bleu et le vert (surtout en parlant des yeux). Pluriel de pore.

Where the eye mixes pers and pores

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pers runs 4 letters (CVCC) against pores's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pers
5 ch
pores

Why the eye confuses pers with pores

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pers is \pɛʁ\ while pores is \pɔʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42594, 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\. pores is at rank #25,082, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ\.

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 42594, this pair ranks #224,431 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pers vs pores

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "pers": -. Private to "pores": o.

"pers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pores" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perseprs · perrs · pesr · ppers
  • poresopres · poers · poress · porres · ppores

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pers" and "pores" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pers" is an adjective and "pores" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "pers" or "pores" show up more?
"pers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,512 in our French list, against #25,082 for "pores". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pores" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,431 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pers" and "pores" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pores vs prep". 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 #224,431 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