pâtes

In a sentence

• J'aime manger des pâtes avec une sauce à la tomate.

  I like eating pasta with tomato sauce.

  Here 'pâtes' refers to the food item 'pasta', which is a common usage of this word to describe a dish made of dough, typically Italian in origin.

• Les pâtes alimentaires sont riches en glucides.

  Pasta products are rich in carbohydrates.

  In this sentence, 'pâtes' denotes the general food category of 'pasta', emphasizing its nutritional composition.

• Les pâtes de cette peinture sont très épaisses.

  The pastes of this paint are very thick.

  Here 'pâtes' refers to 'paste' or 'thick substances,' in this context related to paint, illustrating its use outside of food contexts.