paréevspasséeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,632
“parée” frequency rank
#2,439
“passée” frequency rank
38071
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parée passée
Definition Partie d'un fourneau de forge. Action de passer. Passage

Where the eye mixes parée and passée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. parée runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against passée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
parée
6 ch
passée

Visual trap between parée and passée

A purely visual mix-up. parée (\pa.ʁe\) and passée (\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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38071, 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\. passée is at rank #2,439, 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 38071, this pair ranks #257,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of parée vs passée

Shared letters: aepé. Private to "parée": r. Private to "passée": s.

"parée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "passée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "parée" and "passée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pa.ʁe\ versus \pa.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "parée" or "passée"?
"passée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,439 in our French list, against #35,632 for "parée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "parée" and "passée" 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 "passée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #257,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parée" and "passée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parée vs prep". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #257,873 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