playervsplaysWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: player is a adjective, plays is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#17,519
“player” frequency rank
#45,787
“plays” frequency rank
63306
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature player plays
Definition Pour un objet, qui joue seul, automatique. Pluriel de play.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set player and plays apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
player
5 ch
plays

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: player is \ˈpleɪ.ə(ɹ)\ while plays is \ˈpleɪz\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

player is recorded at frequency rank #17,519, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈpleɪ.ə(ɹ)\. plays is at rank #45,787, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpleɪz\.

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 63306, this pair ranks #82,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of player vs plays

Shared letters: alpy. Private to "player": er. Private to "plays": s.

"player" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC  ·  "plays" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • playerlpayer · palyer · plaeyr · playerr · playre · playyer · pllayer · plyaer
  • playslpays · palys · plasy · playss · playys · pllays · plyas · pplays

Frequency comparison

player#17,519
plays#45,787

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "player" and "plays" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "player" is an adjective and "plays" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "player" or "plays"?
"player" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,519 in our French list, against #45,787 for "plays". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering player vs plays

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “player”; for a noun, it's “plays”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “player” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list