Which to use
“payais” and “posais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,592
- “payais” frequency rank
- #26,477
- “posais” frequency rank
- 70069
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | payais | posais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de payer. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de poser. |
Where the eye mixes payais and posais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. payais (CVVVVC) and posais (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: payais vs posais
A purely visual mix-up. payais (\pɛ.jɛ\) and posais (\po.zɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70069, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
payais is recorded at frequency rank #43,592, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛ.jɛ\. posais is at rank #26,477, tagged as averb, pronounced \po.zɛ\.
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 70069, this pair ranks #52,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of payais vs posais
Shared letters: aips. Private to "payais": y. Private to "posais": o.
"payais" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC · "posais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "payais" for "posais" ever safe?
Frequency check: "payais" vs "posais" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "payais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "posais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #52,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "payais" and "posais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Polaris vs posais". 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 #52,768 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.