plaisantervsplaisantesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#31,184
“plaisanter” frequency rank
#33,402
“plaisantes” frequency rank
64586
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plaisanter plaisantes
Definition Badiner, dire ou faire quelque chose pour amuser, pour faire rire les autres. Féminin pluriel de plaisant.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set plaisanter and plaisantes apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch
plaisanter
10 ch
plaisantes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: plaisanter is \plɛ.zɑ̃.te\ while plaisantes is \plɛ.zɑ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “plaisanter” becomes s in “plaisantes”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plaisanter is recorded at frequency rank #31,184, classified as averb, pronounced \plɛ.zɑ̃.te\. plaisantes is at rank #33,402, tagged as anadj, pronounced \plɛ.zɑ̃t\.

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 64586, this pair ranks #76,332 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of plaisanter vs plaisantes

Shared letters: aeilnpst. Private to "plaisanter": r. Private to "plaisantes": -.

"plaisanter" · 10 letters · shape CCVVCVCCVC  ·  "plaisantes" · 10 letters · shape CCVVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plaisanterlpaisanter · palisanter · plaiasnter · plaisanetr · plaisannter · plaisanterr · plaisantre · plaisantter
  • plaisanteslpaisantes · palisantes · plaiasntes · plaisanets · plaisanntes · plaisantess · plaisantse · plaisanttes

Frequency comparison

plaisanter#31,184
plaisantes#33,402

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plaisanter" and "plaisantes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plaisanter" is a verb and "plaisantes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "plaisanter" or "plaisantes"?
"plaisanter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,184 in our French list, against #33,402 for "plaisantes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering plaisanter vs plaisantes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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