Which to use
“paie” and “pains” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,345
- “paie” frequency rank
- #10,919
- “pains” frequency rank
- 14264
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paie | pains |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de payer. | Pluriel de pain. |
Where the eye mixes paie and pains
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. paie runs 4 letters (CVVV) against pains's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between paie and pains
A purely visual mix-up. paie (\pɛ\) and pains (\pɛ̃\) 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 14264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paie is recorded at frequency rank #3,345, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ\. pains is at rank #10,919, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃\.
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 14264, this pair ranks #397,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paie vs pains
Shared letters: aip. Private to "paie": e. Private to "pains": ns.
"paie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "pains" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "paie" and "pains" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "paie" or "pains"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "paie" and "pains" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "paie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pains" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paie" and "pains" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pains vs parias". 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 #397,439 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.