Which to use
“passée” is a noun and “passez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,439
- “passée” frequency rank
- #5,164
- “passez” frequency rank
- 7603
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passée | passez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de passer. Passage | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de passer. |
Same sound, different letters: passée vs passez
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Homophone desk: passée vs passez
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: passée 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passée is recorded at frequency rank #2,439, 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 7603, this pair ranks #422,667 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passée vs passez
Shared letters: aeps. Private to "passée": é. Private to "passez": z.
"passée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "passez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- passez ← apssez · pasesz · pasez · passezz · passze · ppassez · psasez
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "passée" for "passez" ever safe?
Which is more common, "passée" or "passez"?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "passée" 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 #422,667 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passée" 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 #422,667 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.