Which to use
“passés” and “pressés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,556
- “passés” frequency rank
- #15,969
- “pressés” frequency rank
- 19525
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passés | pressés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de passé. | Masculin pluriel de pressé. |
Where the eye mixes passés and pressés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. passés runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against pressés's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: passés vs pressés
A purely visual mix-up. passés (\pa.se\) and pressés (\pʁɛ.se\) 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 19525, 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\. pressés is at rank #15,969, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɛ.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 19525, this pair ranks #372,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passés vs pressés
Shared letters: psé. Private to "passés": a. Private to "pressés": er.
"passés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pressés" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passés" and "pressés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "passés" or "pressés"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "passés" and "pressés" 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 "pressés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #372,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passés" and "pressés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pieuses vs pressés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #372,836 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.