parésvspayeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#43,589
“parés” frequency rank
#3,028
“paye” frequency rank
46617
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parés paye
Definition Masculin pluriel de paré. Salaire ou rémunération d’un travail.

Where the eye mixes parés and paye

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
parés
4 ch
paye

Visual trap between parés and paye

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parés is \pa.ʁe\ while paye is \pɛj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46617, 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\. paye is at rank #3,028, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛj\.

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 46617, this pair ranks #193,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of parés vs paye

Shared letters: ap. Private to "parés": rsé. Private to "paye": ey.

"parés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "paye" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • payeapye · paey · payye · ppaye · pyae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "parés" and "paye" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parés" is an adjective and "paye" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "parés" or "paye" show up more?
"paye" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,028 in our French list, against #43,589 for "parés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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 "paye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #193,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parés" and "paye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parés vs prep". 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 #193,514 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