parésvspavéeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: parés is a adjective, pavée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“parés” is an adjective and “pavée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,589
“parés” frequency rank
#36,525
“pavée” frequency rank
80114
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parés pavée
Definition Masculin pluriel de paré. Synonyme de digitale pourpre ou pourprée, Digitalis purpurea, plante de la famille des scrofulariacées.

Where the eye mixes parés and pavée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. parés (CVCVC) and pavée (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
parés
5 ch
pavée

Look-alike desk: parés vs pavée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parés is \pa.ʁe\ while pavée is \pa.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parés is recorded at frequency rank #43,589, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.ʁe\. pavée is at rank #36,525, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.ve\.

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 80114, this pair ranks #21,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of parés vs pavée

Shared letters: apé. Private to "parés": rs. Private to "pavée": ev.

"parés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parés" for "pavée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parés" is an adjective and "pavée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "parés" or "pavée" show up more?
"pavée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,525 in our French list, against #43,589 for "parés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pavée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parés" and "pavée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parés vs prep". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #21,705 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