Which to use
“pâtés” and “paye” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,137
- “pâtés” frequency rank
- #3,028
- “paye” frequency rank
- 35165
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pâtés | paye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pâté. | Salaire ou rémunération d’un travail. |
Where the eye mixes pâtés and paye
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses pâtés with paye
A purely visual mix-up. pâtés (\pɑ.te\) and paye (\pɛj\) 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 35165, 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\. paye is at rank #3,028, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛj\.
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 35165, this pair ranks #278,692 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pâtés vs paye
Shared letters: p. Private to "pâtés": stâé. Private to "paye": aey.
"pâtés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "paye" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- paye ← apye · paey · payye · ppaye · pyae
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pâtés" and "paye" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pâtés" or "paye" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "pâtés" and "paye" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pâtés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "paye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #278,692 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pâtés" and "paye" 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 #278,692 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.