pleurervspleursTell them apart

Quick tell: pleurer is a verb, pleurs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pleurer” is a verb and “pleurs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,487
“pleurer” frequency rank
#9,722
“pleurs” frequency rank
13209
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pleurer pleurs
Definition Répandre des larmes. Pluriel de pleur.

Where the eye mixes pleurer and pleurs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
pleurer
6 ch
pleurs

Why the eye confuses pleurer with pleurs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pleurer is \plœ.ʁe\ while pleurs is \plœʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pleurer is recorded at frequency rank #3,487, classified as averb, pronounced \plœ.ʁe\. pleurs is at rank #9,722, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plœʁ\.

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 13209, this pair ranks #401,976 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pleurer vs pleurs

Shared letters: elpru. Private to "pleurer": -. Private to "pleurs": s.

"pleurer" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "pleurs" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pleurerlpeurer · pelurer · pleruer · pleuerr · pleurerr · pleurre · pleurrer · plleurer
  • pleurslpeurs · pelurs · plerus · pleurrs · pleurss · pleusr · plleurs · pluers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pleurer" for "pleurs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pleurer" is a verb and "pleurs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pleurer" vs "pleurs" - which ranks higher?
"pleurer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,487 in our French list, against #9,722 for "pleurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "pleurer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pleurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,976 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pleurer" and "pleurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Peuls vs pleurs". 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 #401,976 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