pacevspayezConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#30,730
“pace” frequency rank
#15,204
“payez” frequency rank
45934
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pace payez
Definition Pas. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de payer.

Where the eye mixes pace and payez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pace
5 ch
payez

Visual trap between pace and payez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pace is \peɪs\ while payez is \pɛ.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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pace is recorded at frequency rank #30,730, classified as anoun, pronounced \peɪs\. payez is at rank #15,204, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛ.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 45934, this pair ranks #198,923 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pace vs payez

Shared letters: aep. Private to "pace": c. Private to "payez": yz.

"pace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "payez" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paceapce · pacce · paec · pcae · ppace
  • payezapyez · paeyz · payezz · payyez · payze · ppayez · pyaez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pace" and "payez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pace" is a noun and "payez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pace" or "payez"?
"payez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,204 in our French list, against #30,730 for "pace". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "payez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #198,923 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pace" and "payez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pace vs parl". 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 #198,923 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