parcsvspassWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,375
“parcs” frequency rank
#9,211
“pass” frequency rank
14586
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parcs pass
Definition Pluriel de parc. Passe, carte d’abonnement (pour les transports en commun, les musées, etc).

Where the eye mixes parcs and pass

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
parcs
4 ch
pass

Visual trap between parcs and pass

A purely visual mix-up. parcs (\paʁk\) and pass (\pas\) 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 14586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parcs is recorded at frequency rank #5,375, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʁk\. pass is at rank #9,211, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pas\.

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 14586, this pair ranks #396,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parcs vs pass

Shared letters: aps. Private to "parcs": cr. Private to "pass": -.

"parcs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "pass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parcsaprcs · pacrs · parccs · parcss · parrcs · parsc · pparcs · pracs
  • passapss · ppass · psas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parcs" for "pass" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\paʁk\ versus \pas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "parcs" vs "pass" - which ranks higher?
"parcs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,375 in our French list, against #9,211 for "pass". 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 "parcs" and "pass" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parcs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pass" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parcs" and "pass" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pass vs peso". 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 #396,032 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