Which to use
“percée” is a noun and “placée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,826
- “percée” frequency rank
- #4,787
- “placée” frequency rank
- 16613
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | percée | placée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ouverture pratiquée soit pour faire un chemin, soit pour se procurer un point de vue. | Féminin singulier de placé. |
Where the eye mixes percée and placée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses percée with placée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: percée is \pɛʁ.se\ while placée is \pla.se\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
percée is recorded at frequency rank #11,826, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.se\. placée is at rank #4,787, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pla.se\.
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 16613, this pair ranks #387,025 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of percée vs placée
Shared letters: cepé. Private to "percée": r. Private to "placée": al.
"percée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "placée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "percée" and "placée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "percée" or "placée"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "percée" and "placée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "percée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "placée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,025 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "percée" and "placée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "percée vs priée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #387,025 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.