passagèrevspassagesTell them apart

Which to use

“passagère” and “passages” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,933
“passagère” frequency rank
#4,698
“passages” frequency rank
24631
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passagère passages
Definition Celle qui prend passage à bord d’un navire, ou d’un aéronef, ou d’un train, ou d’un autre véhicule de transport collectif. Pluriel de passage.

Where the eye mixes passagère and passages

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. passagère runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCV) against passages's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
passagère
8 ch
passages

Why the eye confuses passagère with passages

A purely visual mix-up. passagère (\pa.sa.ʒɛʁ\) and passages (\pɑ.saːʒ\) 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 24631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passagère is recorded at frequency rank #19,933, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.sa.ʒɛʁ\. passages is at rank #4,698, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɑ.saːʒ\.

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 24631, this pair ranks #345,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of passagère vs passages

Shared letters: aegps. Private to "passagère": . Private to "passages": -.

"passagère" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "passages" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passagesapssages · pasages · pasasges · passaegs · passagess · passagges · passagse · passgaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "passagère" for "passages" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pa.sa.ʒɛʁ\ versus \pɑ.saːʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "passagère" vs "passages" - which ranks higher?
"passages" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,698 in our French list, against #19,933 for "passagère". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "passagère" and "passages" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "passagère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "passages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #345,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passagère" and "passages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passagère vs passagères". 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 #345,506 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list