pacesvsplacezConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#43,583
“paces” frequency rank
#22,373
“placez” frequency rank
65956
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paces placez
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier (tú) du présent de l’indicatif de pacer. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de placer.

Where the eye mixes paces and placez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. paces runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against placez's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
paces
6 ch
placez

Why the eye confuses paces with placez

A purely visual mix-up. paces (\ˈpa.θes\) and placez (\pla.se\) 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 65956, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paces is recorded at frequency rank #43,583, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈpa.θes\. placez is at rank #22,373, tagged as averb, pronounced \pla.se\.

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 65956, this pair ranks #69,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of paces vs placez

Shared letters: acep. Private to "paces": s. Private to "placez": lz.

"paces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "placez" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pacesapces · pacces · pacess · pacse · paecs · pcaes · ppaces
  • placezlpacez · palcez · placcez · placezz · placze · plaecz · plcaez · pllacez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "paces" and "placez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈpa.θes\ versus \pla.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "paces" or "placez" show up more?
"placez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,373 in our French list, against #43,583 for "paces". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "paces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "placez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paces" and "placez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paces vs palaces". 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 #69,989 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