Which to use
“payen” is a noun and “payés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,222
- “payen” frequency rank
- #5,591
- “payés” frequency rank
- 50813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | payen | payés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Traverse de la roue à potier, sur laquelle l’ouvrier appuie ses pieds. | Masculin pluriel de payé. |
Where the eye mixes payen and payés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. payen and payés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between payen and payés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: payen is \pa.jɛ̃\ 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 50813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
payen is recorded at frequency rank #45,222, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.jɛ̃\. 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 50813, this pair ranks #159,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of payen vs payés
Shared letters: apy. Private to "payen": en. Private to "payés": sé.
"payen" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "payés" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- payen ← apyen · paeyn · payenn · payyen · ppayen · pyaen
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "payen" and "payés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "payen" or "payés"?
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 "payen" 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 #159,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "payen" and "payés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palin vs payen". 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 #159,758 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.