Which to use
“friends” is a noun and “paid” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,235
- “friends” frequency rank
- #44,122
- “paid” frequency rank
- 55357
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | friends | paid |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plural des Substantivs friend | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs pay |
Letter map: friends vs paid
Shared letters muted; letters that set friends and paid apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. friends runs 7 letters (CCVVCCC) against paid's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: friends vs paid
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: friends is anoun and paidaverb. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
friends is recorded at frequency rank #11,235, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. paid is at rank #44,122, tagged as averb, pronounced […].
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 55357, this pair ranks #982,746 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of friends vs paid
Shared letters: di. Private to "friends": efnrs. Private to "paid": ap.
"friends" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCC · "paid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "friends" for "paid" ever safe?
Frequency check: "friends" vs "paid" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "friends" and "paid".
- Full dictionary entry for "friends" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "paid" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #982,746 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "friends" and "paid" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paid vs puzzles". 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 #982,746 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.