Which to use
“pass” and “pes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,211
- “pass” frequency rank
- #33,825
- “pes” frequency rank
- 43036
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pass | pes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Passe, carte d’abonnement (pour les transports en commun, les musées, etc). | Pluriel de pe. |
Where the eye mixes pass and pes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pass and pes
A purely visual mix-up. pass (\pas\) and pes (\pe\) 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 43036, 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\. pes is at rank #33,825, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pe\.
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 43036, this pair ranks #221,117 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pass vs pes
Shared letters: ps. Private to "pass": a. Private to "pes": e.
"pass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pes" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pass ← apss · ppass · psas
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pass" and "pes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pass" or "pes" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #221,117 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pass" and "pes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pes 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 #221,117 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.