palinvsplisWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,700
“palin” frequency rank
#16,211
“plis” frequency rank
64911
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature palin plis
Definition Première personne du singulier du futur de l’indicatif du verbe palat. Pluriel de pli.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
palin
4 ch
plis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: palin is \ˈpɑː.lĩn\ while plis is \pli\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

palin is recorded at frequency rank #48,700, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈpɑː.lĩn\. plis is at rank #16,211, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pli\.

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 64911, this pair ranks #74,752 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of palin vs plis

Shared letters: ilp. Private to "palin": an. Private to "plis": s.

"palin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "plis" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palinpailn · palinn · pallin · palni · ppalin
  • plislpis · pils · pliss · pllis · plsi · pplis

Frequency comparison

palin#48,700
plis#16,211

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "palin" and "plis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "palin" is a verb and "plis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "palin" or "plis"?
"plis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,211 in our French list, against #48,700 for "palin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering palin vs plis

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “palin”; for a noun, it's “plis”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “palin” 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