Which to use
“pain” and “pas” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,925
- “pain” frequency rank
- #15
- “pas” frequency rank
- 1940
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pain | pas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pâte cuite au four, à base de farine, d’eau et de levure de boulanger ou de levain. | Mouvement que fait une personne ou un animal en mettant un pied devant l’autre pour marcher. |
Where the eye mixes pain and pas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: pain vs pas
A purely visual mix-up. pain (\pɛ̃\) and pas (\pa\) 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 1940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pain is recorded at frequency rank #1,925, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃\. pas is at rank #15, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa\.
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 1940, this pair ranks #437,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pain vs pas
Shared letters: ap. Private to "pain": in. Private to "pas": s.
"pain" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "pas" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pain ← apin · painn · pani · pian · ppain
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pain" for "pas" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "pain" or "pas" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "pain" and "pas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pain" and "pas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pain vs pio". 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 #437,087 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.