pavévsPSVWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“pavé” and “PSV” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,549
“pavé” frequency rank
#36,116
“PSV” frequency rank
46665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pavé PSV
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. Format des données dans lequel les valeurs en texte sont séparées par des barres verticales.

Where the eye mixes pavé and PSV

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pavé
3 ch
PSV

Visual trap between pavé and PSV

A purely visual mix-up. pavé (\pa.ve\) and PSV (\pe.ɛs.ve\) 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 46665, 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\. PSV is at rank #36,116, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pe.ɛs.ve\.

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 46665, this pair ranks #193,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pavé vs PSV

Shared letters: pv. Private to "pavé": . Private to "PSV": s.

"pavé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "PSV" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pavé" for "PSV" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pa.ve\ versus \pe.ɛs.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pavé" vs "PSV" - which ranks higher?
"pavé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,549 in our French list, against #36,116 for "PSV". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "pavé" and "PSV" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pavé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "PSV" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #193,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pavé" and "PSV" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs PSV". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #193,144 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list