Which to use
“plain” and “plein” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,230
- “plain” frequency rank
- #468
- “plein” frequency rank
- 17698
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | plain | plein |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est uni, plat, sans inégalités. | Qui contient tout ce qu’il est capable de contenir ; il est opposé à vide. |
Same sound, different letters: plain vs plein
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Homophone desk: plain vs plein
This is the hard kind. plain and plein are pronounced identically (\plɛ̃\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - a in “plain” becomes e in “plein”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
plain is recorded at frequency rank #17,230, classified as anadj, pronounced \plɛ̃\. plein is at rank #468, tagged as anadj, pronounced \plɛ̃\.
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 17698, this pair ranks #381,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of plain vs plein
Shared letters: ilnp. Private to "plain": a. Private to "plein": e.
"plain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "plein" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "plain" and "plein" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "plain" or "plein"?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "plain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plein" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #381,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "plain" and "plein" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plaigne vs plain". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #381,904 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.