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 eye mixes plaisanter and plaisantes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. plaisanter and plaisantes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses plaisanter with plaisantes
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
- plaisanter ← lpaisanter · palisanter · plaiasnter · plaisanetr · plaisannter · plaisanterr · plaisantre · plaisantter
- plaisantes ← lpaisantes · palisantes · plaiasntes · plaisanets · plaisanntes · plaisantess · plaisantse · plaisanttes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "plaisanter" for "plaisantes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "plaisanter" or "plaisantes"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "plaisanter" and "plaisantes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "plaisanter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plaisantes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #76,332 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "plaisanter" and "plaisantes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plaisance vs plaisantes". 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 #76,332 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.