Which to use
“pass” and “plays” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,211
- “pass” frequency rank
- #45,787
- “plays” frequency rank
- 54998
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pass | plays |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Passe, carte d’abonnement (pour les transports en commun, les musées, etc). | Pluriel de play. |
Where the eye mixes pass and plays
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: pass vs plays
A purely visual mix-up. pass (\pas\) and plays (\ˈpleɪz\) 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 54998, 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\. plays is at rank #45,787, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpleɪz\.
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 54998, this pair ranks #130,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pass vs plays
Shared letters: aps. Private to "pass": -. Private to "plays": ly.
"pass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "plays" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pass" and "plays" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "pass" vs "plays" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "pass" and "plays" 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 "plays" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #130,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pass" and "plays" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plays vs pliés". 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 #130,304 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.