plaisvsprisConfusable pair

Quick tell: plais is a verb, pris is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#13,865
“plais” frequency rank
#302
“pris” frequency rank
14167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plais pris
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de plaire. Occupé, pas disponible.

Where the eye mixes plais and pris

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. plais runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against pris's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
plais
4 ch
pris

Visual trap between plais and pris

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: plais is \plɛ\ while pris is \pʁi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plais is recorded at frequency rank #13,865, classified as averb, pronounced \plɛ\. pris is at rank #302, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁi\.

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 14167, this pair ranks #397,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of plais vs pris

Shared letters: ips. Private to "plais": al. Private to "pris": r.

"plais" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "pris" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plaislpais · palis · plaiss · plasi · plias · pllais · pplais
  • prispirs · ppris · priss · prris · prsi · rpis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "plais" and "pris" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plais" is a verb and "pris" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "plais" vs "pris" - which ranks higher?
"pris" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #302 in our French list, against #13,865 for "plais". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #397,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plais" and "pris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plais vs Polaris". 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 #397,879 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list