Which to use
“parée” and “passé” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,632
- “parée” frequency rank
- #318
- “passé” frequency rank
- 35950
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | parée | passé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie d'un fourneau de forge. | Le temps écoulé. |
Where the eye mixes parée and passé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. parée (CVCVV) and passé (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses parée with passé
A purely visual mix-up. parée (\pa.ʁe\) and passé (\pa.se\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
parée is recorded at frequency rank #35,632, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.ʁe\. passé is at rank #318, tagged as anoun, 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 35950, this pair ranks #273,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of parée vs passé
Shared letters: apé. Private to "parée": er. Private to "passé": s.
"parée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "passé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "parée" and "passé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "parée" or "passé" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "parée" and "passé" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "parée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #273,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "parée" and "passé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parée vs prep". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #273,039 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.