pairesvsparésConfusable pair

Which to use

“paires” and “parés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,282
“paires” frequency rank
#43,589
“parés” frequency rank
51871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paires parés
Definition Féminin pluriel de pair. Masculin pluriel de paré.

Where the eye mixes paires and parés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. paires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against parés's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
paires
5 ch
parés

Visual trap between paires and parés

A purely visual mix-up. paires (\pɛʁ\) and parés (\pa.ʁe\) 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 51871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paires is recorded at frequency rank #8,282, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ\. parés is at rank #43,589, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.ʁe\.

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 51871, this pair ranks #151,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paires vs parés

Shared letters: aprs. Private to "paires": ei. Private to "parés": é.

"paires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "parés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pairesapires · paiers · pairess · pairres · pairse · paries · piares · ppaires

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "paires" and "parés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ\ versus \pa.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "paires" vs "parés" - which ranks higher?
"paires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,282 in our French list, against #43,589 for "parés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "paires" and "parés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "parés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #151,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paires" and "parés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parés vs prep". 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 #151,836 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