Which to use
“pannes” is a noun and “payés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,819
- “pannes” frequency rank
- #5,591
- “payés” frequency rank
- 24410
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pannes | payés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de panne (état de ce qui ne fonctionne plus).. | Masculin pluriel de payé. |
Where the eye mixes pannes and payés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pannes and payés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pannes is \pan\ while payés is \pɛ.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24410, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pannes is recorded at frequency rank #18,819, classified as anoun, pronounced \pan\. 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 24410, this pair ranks #346,776 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pannes vs payés
Shared letters: aps. Private to "pannes": en. Private to "payés": yé.
"pannes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "payés" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pannes ← apnnes · panens · panes · panness · pannse · pnanes · ppannes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pannes" and "payés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pannes" or "payés" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pannes" 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 #346,776 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pannes" and "payés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pannes vs Panzer". 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 #346,776 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.