peservspesoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: peser is a verb, peso is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“peser” is a verb and “peso” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,751
“peser” frequency rank
#48,714
“peso” frequency rank
57465
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peser peso
Definition Examiner la pesanteur d’une chose, la rapporter à un poids déterminé. Variante de péso.

Where the eye mixes peser and peso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peser runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against peso's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
peser
4 ch
peso

Why the eye confuses peser with peso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peser is \pə.ze\ while peso is \pe.zo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peser is recorded at frequency rank #8,751, classified as averb, pronounced \pə.ze\. peso is at rank #48,714, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pe.zo\.

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 57465, this pair ranks #114,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of peser vs peso

Shared letters: eps. Private to "peser": r. Private to "peso": o.

"peser" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "peso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peser ← epser · peesr · peserr · pesre · pesser · ppeser · pseer
  • peso ← epso · peos · ppeso · pseo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "peser" and "peso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "peser" is a verb and "peso" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "peser" or "peso" show up more?
"peser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,751 in our French list, against #48,714 for "peso". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "peser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "peso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #114,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peser" and "peso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs peso". 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 #114,869 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