Which to use
“passer” and “poser” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #293
- “passer” frequency rank
- #1,232
- “poser” frequency rank
- 1525
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passer | poser |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Aller d’un lieu à un autre, traverser un espace. | Placer, mettre sur quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes passer and poser
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: passer vs poser
A purely visual mix-up. passer (\pa.se\) and poser (\po.ze\) 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 1525, 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\. poser is at rank #1,232, tagged as averb, pronounced \po.ze\.
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 1525, this pair ranks #437,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passer vs poser
Shared letters: eprs. Private to "passer": a. Private to "poser": o.
"passer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "poser" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passer" and "poser" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "passer" or "poser"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "passer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passer" and "poser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peler vs poser". 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 #437,897 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.