Which to use
“payer” and “payez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #808
- “payer” frequency rank
- #15,204
- “payez” frequency rank
- 16012
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | payer | payez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Donner de l’argent pour un bien ou un service. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de payer. |
Where the eye mixes payer and payez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: payer vs payez
A purely visual mix-up. payer (\pe.je\) and payez (\pɛ.je\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “payer” becomes z in “payez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16012, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
payer is recorded at frequency rank #808, classified as averb, pronounced \pe.je\. payez is at rank #15,204, tagged as averb, 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 16012, this pair ranks #389,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of payer vs payez
Shared letters: aepy. Private to "payer": r. Private to "payez": z.
"payer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "payez" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "payer" and "payez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "payer" vs "payez" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "payer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "payez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "payer" and "payez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "payez vs Prez". 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 #389,796 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.