PâquesvsplaquéConfusable pair

Quick tell: Pâques is a name, plaqué is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Pâques” is a name and “plaqué” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,359
“Pâques” frequency rank
#16,210
“plaqué” frequency rank
23569
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pâques plaqué
Definition Fête que les chrétiens solennisent tous les ans en mémoire de la résurrection de Jésus-Christ, et qu’ils célèbrent le premier dimanche qui suit la pleine lune de l’équinoxe de printemps. Mis à plat.

Where the eye mixes Pâques and plaqué

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

6 ch
Pâques
6 ch
plaqué

Visual trap between Pâques and plaqué

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pâques is \pak\ while plaqué is \pla.ke\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pâques is recorded at frequency rank #7,359, classified as aname, pronounced \pak\. plaqué is at rank #16,210, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pla.ke\.

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 23569, this pair ranks #351,736 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Pâques vs plaqué

Shared letters: pqu. Private to "Pâques": esâ. Private to "plaqué": alé.

"Pâques" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "plaqué" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Pâques" and "plaqué" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pâques" is a name and "plaqué" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Pâques" or "plaqué" show up more?
"Pâques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,359 in our French list, against #16,210 for "plaqué". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pâques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plaqué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #351,736 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pâques" and "plaqué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasque vs plaqué". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #351,736 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