Which to use
“pavé” and “payen” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,549
- “pavé” frequency rank
- #45,222
- “payen” frequency rank
- 55771
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pavé | payen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bloc, généralement cubique et fait de pierre dure (basalte, granit, grès, porphyre…), spécialement taillé pour confectionner une chaussée de route, de rue, ou d’un sol quelconque. | Traverse de la roue à potier, sur laquelle l’ouvrier appuie ses pieds. |
Where the eye mixes pavé and payen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pavé runs 4 letters (CVCV) against payen's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: pavé vs payen
A purely visual mix-up. pavé (\pa.ve\) and payen (\pa.jɛ̃\) 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 55771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pavé is recorded at frequency rank #10,549, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.ve\. payen is at rank #45,222, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.jɛ̃\.
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 55771, this pair ranks #125,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pavé vs payen
Shared letters: ap. Private to "pavé": vé. Private to "payen": eny.
"pavé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "payen" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- payen ← apyen · paeyn · payenn · payyen · ppayen · pyaen
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pavé" for "payen" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pavé" vs "payen" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pavé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "payen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #125,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pavé" and "payen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palin vs payen". 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 #125,338 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.