persovspursWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,326
“perso” frequency rank
#16,711
“purs” frequency rank
19037
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perso purs
Definition Personnel. Masculin pluriel de pur.

Where the eye mixes perso and purs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
perso
4 ch
purs

Why the eye confuses perso with purs

A purely visual mix-up. perso (\pɛʁ.so\) and purs (\pyʁ\) 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 19037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perso is recorded at frequency rank #2,326, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.so\. purs is at rank #16,711, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pyʁ\.

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 19037, this pair ranks #375,343 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perso vs purs

Shared letters: prs. Private to "perso": eo. Private to "purs": u.

"perso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "purs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • persoeprso · peros · perrso · persso · pesro · pperso · preso
  • pursppurs · prus · purrs · purss · pusr · uprs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perso" and "purs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.so\ versus \pyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "perso" vs "purs" - which ranks higher?
"perso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,326 in our French list, against #16,711 for "purs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "purs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,343 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perso" and "purs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PMR vs purs". 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 #375,343 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