plaisevspuiséWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#12,217
“plaise” frequency rank
#32,135
“puisé” frequency rank
44352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plaise puisé
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de plaire. Participe passé masculin singulier de puiser.

Where the eye mixes plaise and puisé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. plaise runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against puisé's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
plaise
5 ch
puisé

Visual trap between plaise and puisé

A purely visual mix-up. plaise (\plɛz\) and puisé (\pɥi.ze\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plaise is recorded at frequency rank #12,217, classified as averb, pronounced \plɛz\. puisé is at rank #32,135, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɥi.ze\.

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 44352, this pair ranks #211,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of plaise vs puisé

Shared letters: ips. Private to "plaise": ael. Private to "puisé": ué.

"plaise" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "puisé" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plaise ← lpaise · palise · plaisse · plasie · pliase · pllaise · pplaise

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plaise" and "puisé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\plɛz\ versus \pɥi.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "plaise" vs "puisé" - which ranks higher?
"plaise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,217 in our French list, against #32,135 for "puisé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plaise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puisé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #211,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plaise" and "puisé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "priée vs puisé". 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 #211,071 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