PâquesvsplaquéeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,359
“Pâques” frequency rank
#43,069
“plaquée” frequency rank
50428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pâques plaquée
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. Féminin singulier de plaqué.

Where the eye mixes Pâques and plaquée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Pâques runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against plaquée's 7 (CCVCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Pâques
7 ch
plaquée

Visual trap between Pâques and plaquée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pâques is \pak\ while plaquée is \pla.ke\. 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 (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50428, 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\. plaquée is at rank #43,069, 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 50428, this pair ranks #162,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Pâques vs plaquée

Shared letters: epqu. Private to "Pâques": sâ. Private to "plaquée": alé.

"Pâques" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "plaquée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Pâques" and "plaquée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pâques" is a name and "plaquée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Pâques" or "plaquée" show up more?
"Pâques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,359 in our French list, against #43,069 for "plaquée". 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 "Pâques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plaquée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pâques" and "plaquée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "planqués vs plaquée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #162,717 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