pertevspeséeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,418
“perte” frequency rank
#33,826
“pesée” frequency rank
35244
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perte pesée
Definition Privation de quelque chose de précieux, d’agréable, de commode, qu’on avait. Action de peser.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set perte and pesée apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
perte
5 ch
pesée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. perte (\pɛʁt\) and pesée (\pə.ze\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perte is recorded at frequency rank #1,418, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁt\. pesée is at rank #33,826, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pə.ze\.

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 35244, this pair ranks #278,127 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perte vs pesée

Shared letters: ep. Private to "perte": rt. Private to "pesée": .

"perte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pesée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perteeprte · peret · perrte · pertte · petre · pperte · prete

Frequency comparison

perte#1,418
pesée#33,826

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perte" and "pesée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁt\ versus \pə.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "perte" or "pesée"?
"perte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,418 in our French list, against #33,826 for "pesée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering perte vs pesée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “perte” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list