Which to use
“plate” and “poste” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,787
- “plate” frequency rank
- #695
- “poste” frequency rank
- 4482
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | plate | poste |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Embarcation pour une à deux personnes, à fond plat et faible tirant d’eau, utilisée entre autres sur les rivières à faible étiage ou sur des marais, comme sur la Loire ou dans le Marais poitevin. | Établissement de chevaux qui était autrefois placé de distance en distance, pour le service des voyageurs. |
Where the eye mixes plate and poste
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses plate with poste
A purely visual mix-up. plate (\plat\) and poste (\pɔst\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4482, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
plate is recorded at frequency rank #3,787, classified as anoun, pronounced \plat\. poste is at rank #695, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔst\.
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 4482, this pair ranks #431,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of plate vs poste
Shared letters: ept. Private to "plate": al. Private to "poste": os.
"plate" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "poste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "plate" and "poste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "plate" or "poste" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "plate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #431,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "plate" and "poste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plate vs Pluto". 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 #431,499 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.