pagevsphaseConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#850
“page” frequency rank
#1,783
“phase” frequency rank
2633
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature page phase
Definition Face d’une feuille de papier, de parchemin, de vélin, servant à l’écriture ou à l’impression. États successifs par lesquels passent certains phénomènes de la vie, de l’histoire.

Where the eye mixes page and phase

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

4 ch
page
5 ch
phase

Why the eye confuses page with phase

A purely visual mix-up. page (\paʒ\) and phase (\fɑz\) 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 2633, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

page is recorded at frequency rank #850, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʒ\. phase is at rank #1,783, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɑz\.

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 2633, this pair ranks #435,752 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of page vs phase

Shared letters: aep. Private to "page": g. Private to "phase": hs.

"page" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "phase" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pageapge · paeg · pagge · pgae · ppage
  • phasehpase · pahse · phaes · phasse · phhase · phsae · pphase

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "page" and "phase" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\paʒ\ versus \fɑz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "page" vs "phase" - which ranks higher?
"page" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #850 in our French list, against #1,783 for "phase". 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 "page" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "phase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,752 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "page" and "phase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "page vs pogo". 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 #435,752 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