placésvsplaiesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: placés is a adjective, plaies is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“placés” is an adjective and “plaies” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,062
“placés” frequency rank
#14,114
“plaies” frequency rank
19176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature placés plaies
Definition Masculin pluriel de placé. Pluriel de plaie.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
placés
6 ch
plaies

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: placés is \pla.se\ while plaies is \plɛ\. 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 19176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

placés is recorded at frequency rank #5,062, classified as anadj, pronounced \pla.se\. plaies is at rank #14,114, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plɛ\.

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 19176, this pair ranks #374,588 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of placés vs plaies

Shared letters: alps. Private to "placés": . Private to "plaies": ei.

"placés" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "plaies" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plaieslpaies · palies · plaeis · plaiess · pliaes · pllaies · pplaies

Frequency comparison

placés#5,062
plaies#14,114

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "placés" and "plaies" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "placés" is an adjective and "plaies" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "placés" or "plaies"?
"placés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,062 in our French list, against #14,114 for "plaies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering placés vs plaies

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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