patinevsplataneTell them apart

Which to use

“patine” and “platane” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,301
“patine” frequency rank
#43,070
“platane” frequency rank
73371
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature patine platane
Definition Vert-de-gris se formant sur les objets en cuivre ou en bronze. Genre de platanacées, grands arbres dont l’écorce se fissure en écailles (rhytidomes) laissant apparaître le liège par zones, à grandes feuilles caduques alternes et lobées, et dont les fruits sont des akènes, généralement velus réunis en boules pendantes.

Where the eye mixes patine and platane

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. patine runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against platane's 7 (CCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
patine
7 ch
platane

Look-alike desk: patine vs platane

A purely visual mix-up. patine (\pa.tin\) and platane (\pla.tan\) 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 73371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

patine is recorded at frequency rank #30,301, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.tin\. platane is at rank #43,070, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pla.tan\.

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 73371, this pair ranks #40,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of patine vs platane

Shared letters: aenpt. Private to "patine": i. Private to "platane": l.

"patine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "platane" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • patine ← aptine · paitne · patien · patinne · patnie · pattine · ppatine · ptaine
  • platane ← lpatane · paltane · plaatne · plataen · platanne · platnae · plattane · pllatane

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "patine" and "platane" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pa.tin\ versus \pla.tan\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "patine" vs "platane" - which ranks higher?
"patine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,301 in our French list, against #43,070 for "platane". 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 "patine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "platane" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "patine" and "platane" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plaigne vs platane". 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 #40,710 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