persansvspesantTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,712
“persans” frequency rank
#11,097
“pesant” frequency rank
59809
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature persans pesant
Definition Masculin pluriel de persan. Qui a du poids, qui est soumis à la force de la pesanteur.

Where the eye mixes persans and pesant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. persans runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against pesant's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
persans
6 ch
pesant

Look-alike desk: persans vs pesant

A purely visual mix-up. persans (\pɛʁ.sɑ̃\) and pesant (\pə.zɑ̃\) 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 59809, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

persans is recorded at frequency rank #48,712, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.sɑ̃\. pesant is at rank #11,097, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pə.zɑ̃\.

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 59809, this pair ranks #101,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of persans vs pesant

Shared letters: aenps. Private to "persans": r. Private to "pesant": t.

"persans" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "pesant" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • persans ← eprsans · perasns · perrsans · persanns · persanss · persasn · persnas · perssans
  • pesant ← epsant · peasnt · pesannt · pesantt · pesatn · pesnat · pessant · ppesant

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "persans" and "pesant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.sɑ̃\ versus \pə.zɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "persans" vs "pesant" - which ranks higher?
"pesant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,097 in our French list, against #48,712 for "persans". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "persans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pesant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "persans" and "pesant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "persane 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 #101,070 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