Which to use
“pavée” is a noun and “payer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,525
- “pavée” frequency rank
- #808
- “payer” frequency rank
- 37333
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pavée | payer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonyme de digitale pourpre ou pourprée, Digitalis purpurea, plante de la famille des scrofulariacées. | Donner de l’argent pour un bien ou un service. |
Where the eye mixes pavée and payer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pavée and payer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pavée is \pa.ve\ while payer is \pe.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37333, 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\. payer is at rank #808, tagged as averb, pronounced \pe.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 37333, this pair ranks #263,170 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pavée vs payer
Shared letters: aep. Private to "pavée": vé. Private to "payer": ry.
"pavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "payer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- payer ← apyer · paeyr · payerr · payre · payyer · ppayer · pyaer
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pavée" for "payer" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "pavée" or "payer" show up more?
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 "pavée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "payer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #263,170 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pavée" and "payer" 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 #263,170 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.