Which to use
“perte” and “pètes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,418
- “perte” frequency rank
- #48,737
- “pètes” frequency rank
- 50155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perte | pètes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Privation de quelque chose de précieux, d’agréable, de commode, qu’on avait. | Pluriel de pète. |
Where the eye mixes perte and pètes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between perte and pètes
A purely visual mix-up. perte (\pɛʁt\) and pètes (\pɛt\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50155, 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\. pètes is at rank #48,737, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛt\.
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 50155, this pair ranks #164,854 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of perte vs pètes
Shared letters: ept. Private to "perte": r. Private to "pètes": sè.
"perte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pètes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- perte ← eprte · peret · perrte · pertte · petre · pperte · prete
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "perte" and "pètes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "perte" or "pètes" show up more?
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 "perte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pètes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #164,854 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "perte" and "pètes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs pètes". 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 #164,854 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.