Which to use
“pâtés” and “pauses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,137
- “pâtés” frequency rank
- #16,697
- “pauses” frequency rank
- 48834
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pâtés | pauses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pâté. | Pluriel de pause. |
Where the eye mixes pâtés and pauses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pâtés runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against pauses's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses pâtés with pauses
A purely visual mix-up. pâtés (\pɑ.te\) and pauses (\poz\) 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 48834, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pâtés is recorded at frequency rank #32,137, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑ.te\. pauses is at rank #16,697, tagged as anoun, pronounced \poz\.
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 48834, this pair ranks #175,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pâtés vs pauses
Shared letters: ps. Private to "pâtés": tâé. Private to "pauses": aeu.
"pâtés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "pauses" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pauses ← apuses · pasues · pauess · pausess · pausses · ppauses · puases
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pâtés" and "pauses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pâtés" or "pauses" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pâtés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pauses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #175,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pâtés" and "pauses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pâtés vs pètes". 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 #175,684 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.