Which to use
“pavée” and “paye” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,525
- “pavée” frequency rank
- #3,028
- “paye” frequency rank
- 39553
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pavée | paye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonyme de digitale pourpre ou pourprée, Digitalis purpurea, plante de la famille des scrofulariacées. | Salaire ou rémunération d’un travail. |
Where the eye mixes pavée and paye
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pavée and paye
A purely visual mix-up. pavée (\pa.ve\) 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 39553, 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\. 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 39553, this pair ranks #247,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pavée vs paye
Shared letters: aep. Private to "pavée": vé. Private to "paye": y.
"pavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "paye" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- paye ← apye · paey · payye · ppaye · pyae
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pavée" and "paye" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "pavée" or "paye" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pavée" 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 #247,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pavée" and "paye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pavée vs priée". 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 #247,110 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.