plugvspluieWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“plug” and “pluie” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,647
“plug” frequency rank
#2,293
“pluie” frequency rank
25940
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plug pluie
Definition Prise électrique ; fiche. Ensemble de gouttes d’eau dues à la condensation de la vapeur d’eau de l’atmosphère, qui tombent du ciel sur la terre.

Where the eye mixes plug and pluie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
plug
5 ch
pluie

Look-alike desk: plug vs pluie

A purely visual mix-up. plug (\plœɡ\) and pluie (\plɥi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plug is recorded at frequency rank #23,647, classified as anoun, pronounced \plœɡ\. pluie is at rank #2,293, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plɥi\.

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 25940, this pair ranks #337,987 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of plug vs pluie

Shared letters: lpu. Private to "plug": g. Private to "pluie": ei.

"plug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "pluie" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pluglpug · plgu · pllug · plugg · pplug · pulg
  • pluielpuie · pliue · plluie · pluei · ppluie · pulie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plug" and "pluie" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\plœɡ\ versus \plɥi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "plug" or "pluie"?
"pluie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,293 in our French list, against #23,647 for "plug". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "plug" and "pluie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plug" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pluie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,987 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plug" and "pluie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plug 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 #337,987 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