Which to use
“placée” is an adjective and “plaine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,787
- “placée” frequency rank
- #5,907
- “plaine” frequency rank
- 10694
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | placée | plaine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de placé. | Espace géographique caractérisé par une surface plane, avec des pentes relativement faibles. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set placée and plaine apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: placée is \pla.se\ while plaine is \plɛn\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10694, 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\. plaine is at rank #5,907, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plɛn\.
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 10694, this pair ranks #411,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of placée vs plaine
Shared letters: aelp. Private to "placée": cé. Private to "plaine": in.
"placée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV · "plaine" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- plaine ← lpaine · paline · plaien · plainne · planie · pliane · pllaine · pplaine
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "placée" and "plaine" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "placée" or "plaine"?
Remembering placée vs plaine
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “placée”; for a noun, it's “plaine”.
- 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