Which to use
“perse” and “perte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,017
- “perse” frequency rank
- #1,418
- “perte” frequency rank
- 13435
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perse | perte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Langue parlée dans la Perse antique. | Privation de quelque chose de précieux, d’agréable, de commode, qu’on avait. |
Where the eye mixes perse and perte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between perse and perte
A purely visual mix-up. perse (\pɛʁs\) and perte (\pɛʁt\) 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 a single letter - s in “perse” becomes t in “perte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
perse is recorded at frequency rank #12,017, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁs\. perte is at rank #1,418, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁt\.
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 13435, this pair ranks #401,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of perse vs perte
Shared letters: epr. Private to "perse": s. Private to "perte": t.
"perse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "perte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "perse" for "perte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "perse" or "perte"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "perse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "perte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "perse" and "perte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perse vs peso". 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 #401,055 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.