partevspayeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#9,716
“parte” frequency rank
#3,028
“paye” frequency rank
12744
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parte paye
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de partir. Salaire ou rémunération d’un travail.

Where the eye mixes parte and paye

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
parte
4 ch
paye

Why the eye confuses parte with paye

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parte is \paʁt\ 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12744, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parte is recorded at frequency rank #9,716, classified as averb, pronounced \paʁt\. 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 12744, this pair ranks #403,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parte vs paye

Shared letters: aep. Private to "parte": rt. Private to "paye": y.

"parte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "paye" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parteaprte · paret · parrte · partte · patre · pparte · prate
  • payeapye · paey · payye · ppaye · pyae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parte" for "paye" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parte" is a verb and "paye" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "parte" or "paye"?
"paye" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,028 in our French list, against #9,716 for "parte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "parte" 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 #403,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parte" and "paye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parl vs parte". 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 #403,940 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