passéevsPassyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: passée is a noun, Passy is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“passée” is a noun and “Passy” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,439
“passée” frequency rank
#29,068
“Passy” frequency rank
31507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passée Passy
Definition Action de passer. Passage Localité rattachée à Paris en 1860, 16ᵉ arrondissement de Paris.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set passée and Passy apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
passée
5 ch
Passy

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: passée is \pa.se\ while Passy is \pa.si\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31507, 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\. Passy is at rank #29,068, tagged as aname, pronounced \pa.si\.

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 31507, this pair ranks #303,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of passée vs Passy

Shared letters: aps. Private to "passée": . Private to "Passy": y.

"passée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "Passy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Passyapssy · passyy · pasys · ppassy · psasy

Frequency comparison

passée#2,439
Passy#29,068

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "passée" and "Passy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "passée" is a noun and "Passy" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "passée" or "Passy"?
"passée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,439 in our French list, against #29,068 for "Passy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering passée vs Passy

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “passée”; for a name, it's “Passy”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “passée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list