Which to use
“passages” and “passives” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,698
- “passages” frequency rank
- #43,591
- “passives” frequency rank
- 48289
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passages | passives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de passage. | Pluriel de passive. |
Where the eye mixes passages and passives
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses passages with passives
A purely visual mix-up. passages (\pɑ.saːʒ\) and passives (\pa.siv\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48289, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passages is recorded at frequency rank #4,698, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑ.saːʒ\. passives is at rank #43,591, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.siv\.
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 48289, this pair ranks #180,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of passages vs passives
Shared letters: aeps. Private to "passages": g. Private to "passives": iv.
"passages" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "passives" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passages" and "passives" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "passages" or "passives" 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 "passages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #180,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passages" and "passives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passibles vs passives". 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 #180,086 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.