passéesvspasserWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: passées is a adjective, passer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“passées” is an adjective and “passer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,057
“passées” frequency rank
#293
“passer” frequency rank
5350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passées passer
Definition Féminin pluriel de passé. Aller d’un lieu à un autre, traverser un espace.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set passées and passer apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
passées
6 ch
passer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: passées and passer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pa.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passées is recorded at frequency rank #5,057, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.se\. passer is at rank #293, 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 5350, this pair ranks #429,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of passées vs passer

Shared letters: aeps. Private to "passées": é. Private to "passer": r.

"passées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "passer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passerapsser · paser · pasesr · passerr · passre · ppasser · psaser

Frequency comparison

passées#5,057
passer#293

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "passées" and "passer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "passées" is an adjective and "passer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "passées" or "passer"?
"passer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #293 in our French list, against #5,057 for "passées". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering passées vs passer

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “passées”; for a verb, it's “passer”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “passées” 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