Which to use
“pass” and “phases” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,211
- “pass” frequency rank
- #6,330
- “phases” frequency rank
- 15541
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pass | phases |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Passe, carte d’abonnement (pour les transports en commun, les musées, etc). | Pluriel de phase. |
Where the eye mixes pass and phases
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pass and phases
A purely visual mix-up. pass (\pas\) and phases (\faz\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15541, 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\. phases is at rank #6,330, tagged as anoun, pronounced \faz\.
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 15541, this pair ranks #391,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pass vs phases
Shared letters: aps. Private to "pass": -. Private to "phases": eh.
"pass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "phases" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pass" and "phases" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "pass" vs "phases" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
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 "phases" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pass" and "phases" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pass vs peso". 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 #391,899 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.