Which to use
“passé” is a noun and “passez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #318
- “passé” frequency rank
- #5,164
- “passez” frequency rank
- 5482
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passé | passez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Le temps écoulé. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de passer. |
Same sound, different letters: passé vs passez
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - passé and passez
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: passé and passez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pa.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5482, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passé is recorded at frequency rank #318, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.se\. passez is at rank #5,164, tagged as averb, pronounced \pa.se\.
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 5482, this pair ranks #428,900 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passé vs passez
Shared letters: aps. Private to "passé": é. Private to "passez": ez.
"passé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "passez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- passez ← apssez · pasesz · pasez · passezz · passze · ppassez · psasez
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "passé" for "passez" ever safe?
Frequency check: "passé" vs "passez" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
"passé" and "passez" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "passé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #428,900 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passé" and "passez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passez vs plaisez". 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 #428,900 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.