plagevsplayWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“plage” and “play” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,073
“plage” frequency rank
#3,206
“play” frequency rank
27279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plage play
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs plagen spielen

Where the eye mixes plage and play

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

5 ch
plage
4 ch
play

Visual trap between plage and play

A purely visual mix-up. plage ([ˈplaːɡə]) and play ([pleɪ]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plage is recorded at frequency rank #24,073, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈplaːɡə]. play is at rank #3,206, tagged as averb, pronounced [pleɪ].

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 27279, this pair ranks #1,804,359 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of plage vs play

Shared letters: alp. Private to "plage": eg. Private to "play": y.

"plage" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "play" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plagelpage · palge · plaeg · plagge · plgae · pllage · pplage
  • playlpay · paly · playy · pllay · plya · pplay

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plage" and "play" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈplaːɡə] versus [pleɪ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "plage" vs "play" - which ranks higher?
"play" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,206 in our German list, against #24,073 for "plage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "play" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,804,359 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plage" and "play" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plage vs plata". 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 #1,804,359 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list