Which to use
“passé” and “pesée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #318
- “passé” frequency rank
- #33,826
- “pesée” frequency rank
- 34144
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passé | pesée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Le temps écoulé. | Action de peser. |
Where the eye mixes passé and pesée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. passé (CVCCV) and pesée (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses passé with pesée
A purely visual mix-up. passé (\pa.se\) and pesée (\pə.ze\) 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 34144, 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\. pesée is at rank #33,826, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pə.ze\.
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 34144, this pair ranks #285,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of passé vs pesée
Shared letters: psé. Private to "passé": a. Private to "pesée": e.
"passé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pesée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passé" and "pesée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "passé" or "pesée"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "passé" and "pesée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "passé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pesée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #285,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passé" and "pesée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs pesée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #285,848 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.