Which to use
“persisté” and “persistent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,713
- “persisté” frequency rank
- #19,626
- “persistent” frequency rank
- 68339
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | persisté | persistent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de persister. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de persister. |
Where the eye mixes persisté and persistent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses persisté with persistent
A purely visual mix-up. persisté (\pɛʁ.sis.te\) and persistent (\pɛʁ.sist\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
persisté is recorded at frequency rank #48,713, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.sis.te\. persistent is at rank #19,626, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.sist\.
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 68339, this pair ranks #59,584 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of persisté vs persistent
Shared letters: eiprst. Private to "persisté": é. Private to "persistent": n.
"persisté" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "persistent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- persistent ← eprsistent · perisstent · perrsistent · persisetnt · persisstent · persistennt · persistentt · persistetn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "persisté" for "persistent" ever safe?
Frequency check: "persisté" vs "persistent" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "persisté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "persistent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,584 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "persisté" and "persistent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "persique vs persisté". 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 #59,584 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.