percavspersaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: perca is a noun, persa is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#4,502
“perca” frequency rank
#7,813
“persa” frequency rank
12315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perca persa
Definition peixe de água doce, da família dos Percídeos (Percidae), de carne muito apreciada da Pérsia antiga

Letter map: perca vs persa

Shared letters muted; letters that set perca and persa apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
perca
5 ch
persa

Grammar separator: perca vs persa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: perca is anoun and persaanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - c in “perca” becomes s in “persa”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perca is recorded at frequency rank #4,502, classified as anoun. persa is at rank #7,813, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpɛɾ.sə/.

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 12315, this pair ranks #60,335 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perca vs persa

Shared letters: aepr. Private to "perca": c. Private to "persa": s.

"perca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "persa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • percaeprca · pecra · perac · percca · perrca · pperca · preca
  • persaeprsa · peras · perrsa · pesra · ppersa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perca" and "persa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perca" is a noun and "persa" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "perca" or "persa"?
"perca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,502 in our Portuguese list, against #7,813 for "persa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "perca" and "persa".

  • Full dictionary entry for "perca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "persa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,335 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perca" and "persa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "persa vs puerta". 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 #60,335 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list