piecevsplaceWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: piece is a noun, place is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“piece” is a noun and “place” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,109
“piece” frequency rank
#12,025
“place” frequency rank
40134
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature piece place
Definition Pieza, trozo, pedazo. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de placer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set piece and place apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
piece
5 ch
place

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: piece is /piːs/ while place is [ˈplase]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

piece is recorded at frequency rank #28,109, classified as anoun, pronounced /piːs/. place is at rank #12,025, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈplase].

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 40134, this pair ranks #160,704 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of piece vs place

Shared letters: cep. Private to "piece": i. Private to "place": al.

"piece" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "place" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pieceipece · peice · picee · piecce · pieec · piese · ppiece
  • placelpace · palce · placce · plaec · plase · plcae · pllace · pplace

Frequency comparison

piece#28,109
place#12,025

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "piece" and "place" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "piece" is a noun and "place" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "piece" or "place"?
"place" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,025 in our Spanish list, against #28,109 for "piece". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering piece vs place

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “piece”; for a verb, it's “place”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “piece” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list