Which to use
“pass” and “pat” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,211
- “pass” frequency rank
- #10,372
- “pat” frequency rank
- 19583
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pass | pat |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Passe, carte d’abonnement (pour les transports en commun, les musées, etc). | Situation où un des deux joueurs, qui n’a pas son roi en échec et qui a le trait, ne peut pas jouer sans mettre le roi en prise, et qui constitue un des cas de nullité de la partie. |
Where the eye mixes pass and pat
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: pass vs pat
A purely visual mix-up. pass (\pas\) and pat (\pat\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19583, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pass is recorded at frequency rank #9,211, classified as anoun, pronounced \pas\. pat is at rank #10,372, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pat\.
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 19583, this pair ranks #372,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pass vs pat
Shared letters: ap. Private to "pass": s. Private to "pat": t.
"pass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pat" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pass ← apss · ppass · psas
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pass" and "pat" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pass" or "pat"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "pass" and "pat" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #372,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pass" and "pat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pat vs pio". 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 #372,550 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.