Which to use
“paires” and “payés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,282
- “paires” frequency rank
- #5,591
- “payés” frequency rank
- 13873
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paires | payés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de pair. | Masculin pluriel de payé. |
Where the eye mixes paires and payés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. paires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against payés's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: paires vs payés
A purely visual mix-up. paires (\pɛʁ\) and payés (\pɛ.je\) 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 13873, 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\. payés is at rank #5,591, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛ.je\.
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 13873, this pair ranks #399,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paires vs payés
Shared letters: aps. Private to "paires": eir. Private to "payés": yé.
"paires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "payés" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- paires ← apires · paiers · pairess · pairres · pairse · paries · piares · ppaires
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "paires" for "payés" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "paires" or "payés" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "paires" and "payés" 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 "payés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paires" and "payés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pactes vs paires". 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 #399,197 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.