padouevspâqueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“padoue” and “pâque” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,901
“padoue” frequency rank
#31,666
“pâque” frequency rank
59567
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature padoue pâque
Definition Poule domestique européenne, de taille moyenne ou naine, au port fier et relevé avec une grande huppe pleine et une barbe et des favoris bien développés. Variante orthographique de Pâque.

Where the eye mixes padoue and pâque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. padoue runs 6 letters (CVCVVV) against pâque's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
padoue
5 ch
pâque

Visual trap between padoue and pâque

A purely visual mix-up. padoue (\pa.du\) and pâque (\pɑk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59567, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

padoue is recorded at frequency rank #27,901, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.du\. pâque is at rank #31,666, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɑk\.

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 59567, this pair ranks #102,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of padoue vs pâque

Shared letters: epu. Private to "padoue": ado. Private to "pâque": qâ.

"padoue" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV  ·  "pâque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • padoue ← apdoue · paddoue · padoeu · paduoe · paodue · pdaoue · ppadoue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "padoue" and "pâque" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pa.du\ versus \pɑk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "padoue" vs "pâque" - which ranks higher?
"padoue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,901 in our French list, against #31,666 for "pâque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "padoue" and "pâque" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "padoue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pâque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #102,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "padoue" and "pâque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pâque vs pasque". 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 #102,429 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