Which to use
“paies” and “payen” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,619
- “paies” frequency rank
- #45,222
- “payen” frequency rank
- 64841
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paies | payen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de paie. | Traverse de la roue à potier, sur laquelle l’ouvrier appuie ses pieds. |
Where the eye mixes paies and payen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. paies and payen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between paies and payen
A purely visual mix-up. paies (\pɛ\) and payen (\pa.jɛ̃\) 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 64841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paies is recorded at frequency rank #19,619, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ\. 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 64841, this pair ranks #75,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of paies vs payen
Shared letters: aep. Private to "paies": is. Private to "payen": ny.
"paies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "payen" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "paies" and "payen" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "paies" vs "payen" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "paies" and "payen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "paies" 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 #75,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paies" 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 #75,102 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.