Which to use
“parvis” is a noun and “payais” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,221
- “parvis” frequency rank
- #43,592
- “payais” frequency rank
- 60813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | parvis | payais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Place devant la grande porte d’une église, d’une cathédrale. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de payer. |
Where the eye mixes parvis and payais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. parvis (CVCCVC) and payais (CVVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: parvis vs payais
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parvis is \paʁ.vi\ while payais is \pɛ.jɛ\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
parvis is recorded at frequency rank #17,221, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʁ.vi\. payais is at rank #43,592, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛ.jɛ\.
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 60813, this pair ranks #95,635 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of parvis vs payais
Shared letters: aips. Private to "parvis": rv. Private to "payais": y.
"parvis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "payais" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "parvis" for "payais" ever safe?
Frequency check: "parvis" vs "payais" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "parvis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "payais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #95,635 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "parvis" and "payais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "payaient vs payais". 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 #95,635 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.