PagnyvsPassyConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#31,641
“Pagny” frequency rank
#29,068
“Passy” frequency rank
60709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pagny Passy
Definition Nom de famille. Localité rattachée à Paris en 1860, 16ᵉ arrondissement de Paris.

Where the eye mixes Pagny and Passy

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

5 ch
Pagny
5 ch
Passy

Why the eye confuses Pagny with Passy

A purely visual mix-up. Pagny (\pa.ɲi\) and Passy (\pa.si\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pagny is recorded at frequency rank #31,641, classified as aname, pronounced \pa.ɲi\. Passy is at rank #29,068, tagged as aname, pronounced \pa.si\.

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 60709, this pair ranks #96,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Pagny vs Passy

Shared letters: apy. Private to "Pagny": gn. Private to "Passy": s.

"Pagny" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Passy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Pagnyapgny · paggny · pagnny · pagnyy · pagyn · pangy · pgany · ppagny
  • Passyapssy · passyy · pasys · ppassy · psasy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Pagny" and "Passy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pa.ɲi\ versus \pa.si\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Pagny" or "Passy"?
"Passy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,068 in our French list, against #31,641 for "Pagny". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pagny" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Passy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #96,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pagny" and "Passy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pagne vs Pagny". 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 #96,224 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