pliéevspliésWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#30,742
“pliée” frequency rank
#44,634
“pliés” frequency rank
75376
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pliée pliés
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de plier. Pluriel de plié.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
pliée
5 ch
pliés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: pliée and pliés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pli.je\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “pliée” becomes s in “pliés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75376, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pliée is recorded at frequency rank #30,742, classified as averb, pronounced \pli.je\. pliés is at rank #44,634, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pli.je\.

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 75376, this pair ranks #34,282 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pliée vs pliés

Shared letters: ilpé. Private to "pliée": e. Private to "pliés": s.

"pliée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV  ·  "pliés" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Frequency comparison

pliée#30,742
pliés#44,634

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pliée" and "pliés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pliée" is a verb and "pliés" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pliée" or "pliés"?
"pliée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,742 in our French list, against #44,634 for "pliés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pliée vs pliés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “pliée”; for a noun, it's “pliés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pliée” 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