paievsparteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: paie is a noun, parte is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“paie” is a noun and “parte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,345
“paie” frequency rank
#9,716
“parte” frequency rank
13061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paie parte
Definition Action de payer. Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de partir.

Where the eye mixes paie and parte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. paie runs 4 letters (CVVV) against parte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
paie
5 ch
parte

Why the eye confuses paie with parte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: paie is \pɛ\ while parte is \paʁt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13061, 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\. parte is at rank #9,716, tagged as averb, pronounced \paʁt\.

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 13061, this pair ranks #402,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of paie vs parte

Shared letters: aep. Private to "paie": i. Private to "parte": rt.

"paie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "parte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paieapie · paei · piae · ppaie
  • parteaprte · paret · parrte · partte · patre · pparte · prate

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paie" and "parte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "paie" is a noun and "parte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "paie" vs "parte" - which ranks higher?
"paie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,345 in our French list, against #9,716 for "parte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "parte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #402,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paie" and "parte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parl vs parte". 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 #402,597 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