Which to use
“impasses” is a noun and “impayés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,937
- “impasses” frequency rank
- #26,754
- “impayés” frequency rank
- 69691
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impasses | impayés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de impasse. | Masculin pluriel de impayé. |
Where the eye mixes impasses and impayés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. impasses runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVC) against impayés's 7 (VCCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: impasses vs impayés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: impasses is \ɛ̃.pas\ while impayés is \ɛ̃.pe.je\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69691, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impasses is recorded at frequency rank #42,937, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.pas\. impayés is at rank #26,754, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pe.je\.
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 69691, this pair ranks #54,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of impasses vs impayés
Shared letters: aimps. Private to "impasses": e. Private to "impayés": yé.
"impasses" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC · "impayés" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- impasses ← imapsses · immpasses · impasess · impassess · impassse · imppasses · impsases · ipmasses
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "impasses" for "impayés" ever safe?
Which is more common, "impasses" or "impayés"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "impasses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "impayés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impasses" and "impayés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impactés vs impasses". 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 #54,195 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.