Which to use
“pavée” is a noun and “pavés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,525
- “pavée” frequency rank
- #14,754
- “pavés” frequency rank
- 51279
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pavée | pavés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonyme de digitale pourpre ou pourprée, Digitalis purpurea, plante de la famille des scrofulariacées. | Masculin pluriel de pavé. |
Same sound, different letters: pavée vs pavés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. pavée (CVCVV) and pavés (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Ear matches; page differs - pavée and pavés
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: pavée and pavés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pa.ve\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “pavée” becomes s in “pavés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pavée is recorded at frequency rank #36,525, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.ve\. pavés is at rank #14,754, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.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 51279, this pair ranks #156,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pavée vs pavés
Shared letters: apvé. Private to "pavée": e. Private to "pavés": s.
"pavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "pavés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pavée" and "pavés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pavée" or "pavés" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "pavée" / "pavés". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "pavée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pavés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #156,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pavée" and "pavés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pavée vs priée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #156,227 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.