Which to use
“paire” is a noun and “plaire” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,630
- “paire” frequency rank
- #5,168
- “plaire” frequency rank
- 8798
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paire | plaire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deux choses de même espèce, qui vont nécessairement ou ordinairement ensemble. | Agréer ; être agréable. |
Where the eye mixes paire and plaire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. paire runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against plaire's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: paire vs plaire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: paire is \pɛʁ\ while plaire is \plɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8798, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paire is recorded at frequency rank #3,630, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ\. plaire is at rank #5,168, tagged as averb, pronounced \plɛʁ\.
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 8798, this pair ranks #418,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paire vs plaire
Shared letters: aeipr. Private to "paire": -. Private to "plaire": l.
"paire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "plaire" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "paire" and "plaire" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "paire" or "plaire"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "paire" and "plaire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "paire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plaire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #418,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paire" and "plaire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plaigne vs plaire". 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 #418,816 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.