Which to use
“panser” is a verb and “passés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,408
- “panser” frequency rank
- #3,556
- “passés” frequency rank
- 43964
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | panser | passés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Soigner une plaie ou une blessure ; lui faire un pansement. | Masculin pluriel de passé. |
Where the eye mixes panser and passés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. panser and passés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between panser and passés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: panser is \pɑ̃.se\ while passés is \pa.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43964, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
panser is recorded at frequency rank #40,408, classified as averb, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\. passés is at rank #3,556, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.se\.
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 43964, this pair ranks #214,049 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of panser vs passés
Shared letters: aps. Private to "panser": enr. Private to "passés": é.
"panser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "passés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- panser ← apnser · panesr · pannser · panserr · pansre · pansser · pasner · pnaser
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "panser" and "passés" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "panser" or "passés"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "panser" and "passés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "panser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #214,049 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "panser" and "passés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "panser 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 #214,049 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.