Which to use
“passée” and “passive” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,439
- “passée” frequency rank
- #13,858
- “passive” frequency rank
- 16297
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passée | passive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de passer. Passage | Celle qui, dans le coït, est la partenaire réceptive |
Where the eye mixes passée and passive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between passée and passive
A purely visual mix-up. passée (\pa.se\) and passive (\pa.siv\) 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 16297, 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\. passive is at rank #13,858, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.siv\.
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 16297, this pair ranks #388,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passée vs passive
Shared letters: aeps. Private to "passée": é. Private to "passive": iv.
"passée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "passive" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- passive ← apssive · pasisve · pasive · passiev · passivve · passvie · ppassive · psasive
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passée" and "passive" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "passée" or "passive"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "passée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #388,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passée" and "passive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passive vs passives". 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 #388,479 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.