Which to use
“passés” and “passif” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,556
- “passés” frequency rank
- #8,592
- “passif” frequency rank
- 12148
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passés | passif |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de passé. | Qui souffre, qui subit l’action, l’impression. |
Where the eye mixes passés and passif
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. passés and passif follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: passés vs passif
A purely visual mix-up. passés (\pa.se\) and passif (\pa.sif\) 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 12148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passés is recorded at frequency rank #3,556, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.se\. passif is at rank #8,592, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.sif\.
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 12148, this pair ranks #406,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passés vs passif
Shared letters: aps. Private to "passés": é. Private to "passif": fi.
"passés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "passif" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- passif ← apssif · pasif · pasisf · passfi · passiff · ppassif · psasif
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "passés" and "passif" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "passés" or "passif"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "passés" and "passif" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "passés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passif" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #406,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passés" and "passif" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passif vs pensif". 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 #406,399 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.