peséevspliéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pesée is a noun, pliée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pesée” is a noun and “pliée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,826
“pesée” frequency rank
#30,742
“pliée” frequency rank
64568
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pesée pliée
Definition Action de peser. Participe passé féminin singulier de plier.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pesée and pliée apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
pesée
5 ch
pliée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pesée is \pə.ze\ while pliée is \pli.je\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64568, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pesée is recorded at frequency rank #33,826, classified as anoun, pronounced \pə.ze\. pliée is at rank #30,742, tagged as averb, pronounced \pli.je\.

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 64568, this pair ranks #76,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pesée vs pliée

Shared letters: epé. Private to "pesée": s. Private to "pliée": il.

"pesée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "pliée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Frequency comparison

pesée#33,826
pliée#30,742

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pesée" and "pliée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pesée" is a noun and "pliée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pesée" or "pliée"?
"pliée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,742 in our French list, against #33,826 for "pesée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pesée vs pliée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “pesée”; for a verb, it's “pliée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pesée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list