Which to use
“pâtés” and “plaies” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,137
- “pâtés” frequency rank
- #14,114
- “plaies” frequency rank
- 46251
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pâtés | plaies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pâté. | Pluriel de plaie. |
Where the eye mixes pâtés and plaies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pâtés runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against plaies's 6 (CCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pâtés and plaies
A purely visual mix-up. pâtés (\pɑ.te\) and plaies (\plɛ\) 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 46251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pâtés is recorded at frequency rank #32,137, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑ.te\. plaies is at rank #14,114, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plɛ\.
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 46251, this pair ranks #196,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pâtés vs plaies
Shared letters: ps. Private to "pâtés": tâé. Private to "plaies": aeil.
"pâtés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "plaies" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- plaies ← lpaies · palies · plaeis · plaiess · pliaes · pllaies · pplaies
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pâtés" and "plaies" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pâtés" or "plaies" show up more?
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 "pâtés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plaies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #196,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pâtés" and "plaies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pâtés vs pètes". 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 #196,387 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.