planètesvsplantésTell them apart

Quick tell: planètes is a noun, plantés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“planètes” is a noun and “plantés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,880
“planètes” frequency rank
#17,790
“plantés” frequency rank
25670
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature planètes plantés
Definition Pluriel de planète. Masculin pluriel de planté.

Where the eye mixes planètes and plantés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. planètes runs 8 letters (CCVCVCVC) against plantés's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
planètes
7 ch
plantés

Visual trap between planètes and plantés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: planètes is \pla.nɛt\ while plantés is \plɑ̃.te\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25670, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

planètes is recorded at frequency rank #7,880, classified as anoun, pronounced \pla.nɛt\. plantés is at rank #17,790, tagged as anadj, pronounced \plɑ̃.te\.

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 25670, this pair ranks #339,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of planètes vs plantés

Shared letters: alnpst. Private to "planètes": eè. Private to "plantés": é.

"planètes" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC  ·  "plantés" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "planètes" for "plantés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "planètes" is a noun and "plantés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "planètes" vs "plantés" - which ranks higher?
"planètes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,880 in our French list, against #17,790 for "plantés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "planètes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plantés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #339,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "planètes" and "plantés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pactes vs plantés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #339,529 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