Which to use
“passé” and “pavée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #318
- “passé” frequency rank
- #36,525
- “pavée” frequency rank
- 36843
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passé | pavée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Le temps écoulé. | Synonyme de digitale pourpre ou pourprée, Digitalis purpurea, plante de la famille des scrofulariacées. |
Where the eye mixes passé and pavée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. passé (CVCCV) and pavée (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: passé vs pavée
A purely visual mix-up. passé (\pa.se\) and pavée (\pa.ve\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36843, 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\. pavée is at rank #36,525, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.ve\.
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 36843, this pair ranks #266,752 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of passé vs pavée
Shared letters: apé. Private to "passé": s. Private to "pavée": ev.
"passé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passé" and "pavée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "passé" or "pavée" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "passé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pavée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #266,752 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passé" and "pavée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pavée vs priée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #266,752 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.