persesvspieusesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,814
“perses” frequency rank
#49,855
“pieuses” frequency rank
70669
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perses pieuses
Definition Pluriel de perse. Féminin pluriel de pieux.

Where the eye mixes perses and pieuses

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

6 ch
perses
7 ch
pieuses

Look-alike desk: perses vs pieuses

A purely visual mix-up. perses (\pɛʁs\) and pieuses (\pjøz\) 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 70669, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perses is recorded at frequency rank #20,814, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁs\. pieuses is at rank #49,855, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pjøz\.

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 70669, this pair ranks #50,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of perses vs pieuses

Shared letters: eps. Private to "perses": r. Private to "pieuses": iu.

"perses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pieuses" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perses ← eprses · peress · perrses · persess · persses · pesres · pperses · preses
  • pieuses ← ipeuses · peiuses · piesues · pieuess · pieusess · pieusses · piueses · ppieuses

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perses" and "pieuses" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁs\ versus \pjøz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "perses" vs "pieuses" - which ranks higher?
"perses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,814 in our French list, against #49,855 for "pieuses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "perses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pieuses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perses" and "pieuses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pieuses vs piqués". 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 #50,483 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