Which to use
“passé” and “pétasse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #318
- “passé” frequency rank
- #25,097
- “pétasse” frequency rank
- 25415
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passé | pétasse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Le temps écoulé. | Prostituée. |
Where the eye mixes passé and pétasse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. passé runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against pétasse's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: passé vs pétasse
A purely visual mix-up. passé (\pa.se\) and pétasse (\pe.tas\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25415, 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\. pétasse is at rank #25,097, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pe.tas\.
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 25415, this pair ranks #341,003 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passé vs pétasse
Shared letters: apsé. Private to "passé": -. Private to "pétasse": et.
"passé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pétasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "passé" and "pétasse" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "passé" or "pétasse"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "passé" and "pétasse" 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 "pétasse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #341,003 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passé" and "pétasse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pétasse vs potasse". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #341,003 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.