Which to use
“pavée” is a noun and “payées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,525
- “pavée” frequency rank
- #12,016
- “payées” frequency rank
- 48541
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pavée | payées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonyme de digitale pourpre ou pourprée, Digitalis purpurea, plante de la famille des scrofulariacées. | Féminin pluriel de payé. |
Where the eye mixes pavée and payées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pavée and payées
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pavée is \pa.ve\ while payées is \pɛ.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48541, 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\. payées is at rank #12,016, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛ.je\.
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 48541, this pair ranks #178,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pavée vs payées
Shared letters: aepé. Private to "pavée": v. Private to "payées": sy.
"pavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "payées" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pavée" for "payées" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "pavée" or "payées" show up more?
After this comparison
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 "payées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pavée" and "payées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pavée vs priée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #178,102 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.