placéevsplanerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,787
“placée” frequency rank
#19,368
“planer” frequency rank
24155
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature placée planer
Definition Féminin singulier de placé. Se soutenir en l’air, les ailes étendues et immobiles, en parlant des oiseaux.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set placée and planer apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
placée
6 ch
planer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: placée is \pla.se\ while planer is \pla.ne\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24155, 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\. planer is at rank #19,368, tagged as averb, pronounced \pla.ne\.

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 24155, this pair ranks #348,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of placée vs planer

Shared letters: aelp. Private to "placée": . Private to "planer": nr.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planerlpaner · palner · plaenr · planerr · planner · planre · pllaner · plnaer

Frequency comparison

placée#4,787
planer#19,368

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "placée" and "planer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "placée" is an adjective and "planer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "placée" or "planer"?
"placée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,787 in our French list, against #19,368 for "planer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering placée vs planer

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 “planer”.
  • 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