plaievsplaysWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“plaie” and “plays” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,055
“plaie” frequency rank
#45,787
“plays” frequency rank
54842
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plaie plays
Definition Lésion du corps provenant soit d’une blessure sanglante ou d’une contusion, soit d’un accident physiologique. Pluriel de play.

Where the eye mixes plaie and plays

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
plaie
5 ch
plays

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. plaie (\plɛ\) and plays (\ˈpleɪz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54842, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plaie is recorded at frequency rank #9,055, classified as anoun, pronounced \plɛ\. plays is at rank #45,787, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpleɪz\.

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 54842, this pair ranks #131,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of plaie vs plays

Shared letters: alp. Private to "plaie": ei. Private to "plays": sy.

"plaie" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV  ·  "plays" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plaielpaie · palie · plaei · pliae · pllaie · pplaie
  • playslpays · palys · plasy · playss · playys · pllays · plyas · pplays

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plaie" and "plays" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\plɛ\ versus \ˈpleɪz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "plaie" or "plays"?
"plaie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,055 in our French list, against #45,787 for "plays". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list