payezvsposezWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“payez” and “posez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,204
“payez” frequency rank
#7,354
“posez” frequency rank
22558
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature payez posez
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de payer. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de poser.

Where the eye mixes payez and posez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
payez
5 ch
posez

Look-alike desk: payez vs posez

A purely visual mix-up. payez (\pɛ.je\) and posez (\po.ze\) 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 22558, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

payez is recorded at frequency rank #15,204, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛ.je\. posez is at rank #7,354, tagged as averb, pronounced \po.ze\.

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 22558, this pair ranks #357,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of payez vs posez

Shared letters: epz. Private to "payez": ay. Private to "posez": os.

"payez" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "posez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • payezapyez · paeyz · payezz · payyez · payze · ppayez · pyaez
  • posezopsez · poesz · posezz · possez · posze · pposez · psoez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "payez" for "posez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛ.je\ versus \po.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "payez" or "posez" show up more?
"posez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,354 in our French list, against #15,204 for "payez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "payez" and "posez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "payez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "posez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "payez" and "posez" 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 #357,342 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list