Which to use
“pavée” is a noun and “payés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,525
- “pavée” frequency rank
- #5,591
- “payés” frequency rank
- 42116
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pavée | payés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonyme de digitale pourpre ou pourprée, Digitalis purpurea, plante de la famille des scrofulariacées. | Masculin pluriel de payé. |
Where the eye mixes pavée and payés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pavée and payés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pavée is \pa.ve\ while payés is \pɛ.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42116, 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\. payés is at rank #5,591, 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 42116, this pair ranks #228,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pavée vs payés
Shared letters: apé. Private to "pavée": ev. Private to "payés": sy.
"pavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "payés" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pavée" for "payés" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pavée" or "payés"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pavée" and "payés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pavée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "payés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #228,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pavée" and "payés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pavée vs priée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #228,108 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.