Which to use
“passer” and “puiser” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #293
- “passer” frequency rank
- #19,120
- “puiser” frequency rank
- 19413
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passer | puiser |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Aller d’un lieu à un autre, traverser un espace. | Prendre de l’eau dans un puits. |
Where the eye mixes passer and puiser
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: passer vs puiser
A purely visual mix-up. passer (\pa.se\) and puiser (\pɥi.ze\) 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 19413, 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\. puiser is at rank #19,120, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɥi.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 19413, this pair ranks #373,391 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passer vs puiser
Shared letters: eprs. Private to "passer": a. Private to "puiser": iu.
"passer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "puiser" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "passer" and "puiser" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "passer" vs "puiser" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
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 "puiser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #373,391 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passer" and "puiser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "priseur vs puiser". 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 #373,391 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.