placéevsplacerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: placée is a adjective, placer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“placée” is an adjective and “placer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,787
“placée” frequency rank
#3,351
“placer” frequency rank
8138
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature placée placer
Definition Féminin singulier de placé. Situer ; mettre dans un lieu.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set placée and placer apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
placée
6 ch
placer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: placée and placer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pla.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8138, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

placée is recorded at frequency rank #4,787, classified as anadj, pronounced \pla.se\. placer is at rank #3,351, tagged as averb, 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 8138, this pair ranks #420,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of placée vs placer

Shared letters: acelp. Private to "placée": é. Private to "placer": r.

"placée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "placer" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • placerlpacer · palcer · placcer · placerr · placre · plaecr · plcaer · pllacer

Frequency comparison

placée#4,787
placer#3,351

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "placée" and "placer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "placée" is an adjective and "placer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "placée" or "placer"?
"placer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,351 in our French list, against #4,787 for "placée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering placée vs placer

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “placée”; for a verb, it's “placer”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “placée” 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