Which to use
“païens” is an adjective and “payen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,644
- “païens” frequency rank
- #45,222
- “payen” frequency rank
- 67866
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | païens | payen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de païen. | Traverse de la roue à potier, sur laquelle l’ouvrier appuie ses pieds. |
Same sound, different letters: païens vs payen
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. païens runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against payen's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - païens and payen
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: païens and payen carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pa.jɛ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
païens is recorded at frequency rank #22,644, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.jɛ̃\. payen is at rank #45,222, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.jɛ̃\.
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 67866, this pair ranks #61,608 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of païens vs payen
Shared letters: aenp. Private to "païens": sï. Private to "payen": y.
"païens" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "payen" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- payen ← apyen · paeyn · payenn · payyen · ppayen · pyaen
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "païens" for "payen" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "païens" or "payen" show up more?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "païens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "payen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,608 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "païens" and "payen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palin vs payen". 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 #61,608 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.