Which to use
“passé” and “pousse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #318
- “passé” frequency rank
- #2,793
- “pousse” frequency rank
- 3111
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passé | pousse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Le temps écoulé. | Action de pousser, croissance, développement de ce qui pousse. |
Where the eye mixes passé and pousse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between passé and pousse
A purely visual mix-up. passé (\pa.se\) and pousse (\pus\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3111, 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\. pousse is at rank #2,793, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pus\.
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 3111, this pair ranks #434,763 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passé vs pousse
Shared letters: ps. Private to "passé": aé. Private to "pousse": eou.
"passé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pousse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pousse ← opusse · posuse · pouse · pouses · ppousse · puosse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "passé" for "pousse" ever safe?
Frequency check: "passé" vs "pousse" - which ranks higher?
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 "pousse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,763 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passé" and "pousse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasque vs passé". 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 #434,763 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.