Which to use
“passer” and “pister” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #293
- “passer” frequency rank
- #41,454
- “pister” frequency rank
- 41747
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passer | pister |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Aller d’un lieu à un autre, traverser un espace. | Suivre les traces d’un animal. |
Where the eye mixes passer and pister
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. passer and pister follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between passer and pister
A purely visual mix-up. passer (\pa.se\) and pister (\pis.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passer is recorded at frequency rank #293, classified as averb, pronounced \pa.se\. pister is at rank #41,454, tagged as averb, pronounced \pis.te\.
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 41747, this pair ranks #230,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of passer vs pister
Shared letters: eprs. Private to "passer": a. Private to "pister": it.
"passer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pister" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "passer" for "pister" ever safe?
Which is more common, "passer" or "pister"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "passer" and "pister" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "passer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pister" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #230,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passer" and "pister" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pister vs postier". 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 #230,796 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.