Which to use
“pavés” is an adjective and “près” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,754
- “pavés” frequency rank
- #294
- “près” frequency rank
- 15048
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pavés | près |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de pavé. | À petite distance, à proximité. |
Where the eye mixes pavés and près
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pavés runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against près's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pavés and près
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pavés is \pa.ve\ while près is \pʁɛ\. 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 (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pavés is recorded at frequency rank #14,754, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.ve\. près is at rank #294, tagged as anadv, pronounced \pʁɛ\.
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 15048, this pair ranks #394,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pavés vs près
Shared letters: ps. Private to "pavés": avé. Private to "près": rè.
"pavés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "près" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pavés" and "près" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "pavés" vs "près" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pavés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "près" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #394,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pavés" and "près" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pavés vs pètes". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #394,090 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.