Which to use
“pagne” and “passé” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,435
- “pagne” frequency rank
- #318
- “passé” frequency rank
- 39753
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pagne | passé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Morceau de tissu ou de matière végétale tressée avec lequel une personne se couvre les hanches jusqu’aux genoux. | Le temps écoulé. |
Where the eye mixes pagne and passé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pagne and passé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pagne with passé
A purely visual mix-up. pagne (\paɲ\) and passé (\pa.se\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39753, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pagne is recorded at frequency rank #39,435, classified as anoun, pronounced \paɲ\. passé is at rank #318, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.se\.
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 39753, this pair ranks #245,658 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pagne vs passé
Shared letters: ap. Private to "pagne": egn. Private to "passé": sé.
"pagne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "passé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pagne ← apgne · pagen · paggne · pagnne · pange · pgane · ppagne
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pagne" and "passé" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "pagne" or "passé" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pagne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #245,658 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pagne" and "passé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pagne vs plaigne". 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 #245,658 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.