perversvsperversesTell them apart

Quick tell: pervers is a adjective, perverses is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pervers” is an adjective and “perverses” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,476
“pervers” frequency rank
#49,850
“perverses” frequency rank
57326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pervers perverses
Definition Qui est méchant, dépravé et naturellement enclin au mal. Pluriel de perverse.

Where the eye mixes pervers and perverses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
pervers
9 ch
perverses

Why the eye confuses pervers with perverses

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pervers is \pɛʁ.vɛʁ\ while perverses is \pɛʁ.vɛʁs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “pervers” sits inside “perverses”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pervers is recorded at frequency rank #7,476, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.vɛʁ\. perverses is at rank #49,850, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.vɛʁs\.

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 57326, this pair ranks #115,725 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pervers vs perverses

Shared letters: eprsv. Private to "pervers": -. Private to "perverses": -.

"pervers" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "perverses" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perverseprvers · perevrs · perrvers · perverrs · perverss · pervesr · pervres · pervvers
  • perverseseprverses · perevrses · perrverses · perveress · perverrses · perversess · perversses · pervesres

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pervers" and "perverses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pervers" is an adjective and "perverses" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pervers" or "perverses"?
"pervers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,476 in our French list, against #49,850 for "perverses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "pervers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perverses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,725 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pervers" and "perverses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perverse vs perverses". 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 #115,725 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