parléesvspasséesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,990
“parlées” frequency rank
#5,057
“passées” frequency rank
42047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parlées passées
Definition Féminin pluriel de parlé. Féminin pluriel de passé.

Where the eye mixes parlées and passées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. parlées and passées follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
parlées
7 ch
passées

Visual trap between parlées and passées

A purely visual mix-up. parlées (\paʁ.le\) and passées (\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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parlées is recorded at frequency rank #36,990, classified as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.le\. passées is at rank #5,057, tagged as anadj, 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 42047, this pair ranks #228,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of parlées vs passées

Shared letters: aepsé. Private to "parlées": lr. Private to "passées": -.

"parlées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "passées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parlées" for "passées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.le\ versus \pa.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "parlées" vs "passées" - which ranks higher?
"passées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,057 in our French list, against #36,990 for "parlées". 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 "parlées" and "passées" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parlées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "passées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parlées" and "passées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parlées vs parlers". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #228,610 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