Which to use
“passive” and “passoire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,858
- “passive” frequency rank
- #32,107
- “passoire” frequency rank
- 45965
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passive | passoire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Celle qui, dans le coït, est la partenaire réceptive | Récipient percé, permettant de retenir une partie des éléments qu’il contient (les plus gros) et de laisser passer les autres. |
Where the eye mixes passive and passoire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses passive with passoire
A purely visual mix-up. passive (\pa.siv\) and passoire (\pa.swaʁ\) 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 45965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passive is recorded at frequency rank #13,858, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.siv\. passoire is at rank #32,107, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.swaʁ\.
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 45965, this pair ranks #198,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of passive vs passoire
Shared letters: aeips. Private to "passive": v. Private to "passoire": or.
"passive" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "passoire" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "passive" for "passoire" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "passive" or "passoire" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "passive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passoire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #198,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passive" and "passoire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passoire vs pastore". 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 #198,683 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.