Which to use
“pays” is a noun and “paysan” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #137
- “pays” frequency rank
- #10,373
- “paysan” frequency rank
- 10510
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pays | paysan |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Territoire d’une nation. | Villageois, relatif aux paysans. |
Where the eye mixes pays and paysan
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pays runs 4 letters (CVVC) against paysan's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pays and paysan
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pays is \pe.i\ while paysan is \pɛ.i.zɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “pays” sits inside “paysan”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pays is recorded at frequency rank #137, classified as anoun, pronounced \pe.i\. paysan is at rank #10,373, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛ.i.zɑ̃\.
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 10510, this pair ranks #412,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pays vs paysan
Shared letters: apsy. Private to "pays": -. Private to "paysan": n.
"pays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "paysan" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pays" and "paysan" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pays" vs "paysan" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "pays" and "paysan" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pays" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "paysan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #412,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pays" and "paysan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "payen vs paysan". 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 #412,713 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.