PégasevspleaseWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Pégase is a name, please is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Pégase” is a name and “please” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,226
“Pégase” frequency rank
#15,208
“please” frequency rank
50434
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pégase please
Definition Cheval ailé fabuleux auquel les anciens poètes ont donné des ailes et qui, selon eux, fit jaillir d’un coup de pied les eaux de l’Hippocrène. Plaire.

Where the eye mixes Pégase and please

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Pégase (CVCVCV) and please (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
Pégase
6 ch
please

Why the eye confuses Pégase with please

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pégase is \pe.ɡaz\ while please is \ˈpliz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50434, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pégase is recorded at frequency rank #35,226, classified as aname, pronounced \pe.ɡaz\. please is at rank #15,208, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈpliz\.

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 50434, this pair ranks #162,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Pégase vs please

Shared letters: aeps. Private to "Pégase": gé. Private to "please": l.

"Pégase" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "please" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • please ← lpease · pelase · plaese · pleaes · pleasse · plesae · pllease · pplease

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Pégase" for "please" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pégase" is a name and "please" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Pégase" vs "please" - which ranks higher?
"please" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,208 in our French list, against #35,226 for "Pégase". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pégase" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "please" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pégase" and "please" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pégase vs pègre". 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 #162,670 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