Which to use
“paid” is a verb and “pays” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,122
- “paid” frequency rank
- #41,381
- “pays” frequency rank
- 85503
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paid | pays |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs pay | Plural des Substantivs pay |
Letter map: paid vs pays
Shared letters muted; letters that set paid and pays apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. paid and pays follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - paid and pays
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: paid is averb and paysanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paid is recorded at frequency rank #44,122, classified as averb, pronounced […]. pays is at rank #41,381, tagged as anoun, pronounced [peɪz].
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 85503, this pair ranks #107,298 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of paid vs pays
Shared letters: ap. Private to "paid": di. Private to "pays": sy.
"paid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "pays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "paid" and "pays" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "paid" or "pays" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "paid" and "pays". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "paid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pays" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,298 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paid" and "pays" 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 #107,298 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.