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Difficultés anglaises

> plain and plane plain and plane are liable to be confused since they sound alike. However, they have completely different meanings. Plain can be an adjective with several meanings. It means "easy to see, hear or understand, clear", as in "It was plain that she was unhappy" and "speak in plain English so that you will be understood"; "frank, not trying to deceive", as in "the plain truth"; "simple, not decorated or fancy", as in "a plain style of dressing" and "plain" food"; "without a pattern", as in "prefer a plain material"; "not beautiful", as in "People said that she was the plain one of the family". Plain as a noun refers to "a large area of flat, treeless land", as in "grow wheat on the plains". Plane as a noun means "the shortened form of aeroplane", as in "Travelling by plane will be quicker"; "a flat or level surface", as in "create" a plane by levelling the surface"; "a level or standard", as in "His mind is on a different plane from ours" and "reach a higher plane of development"; "a tool for smoothing surfaces", as in "use a plane to smooth out the imperfections in the wood". Note the plain in the phrase plain sailing, as in "She thought it would be plain sailing once she got a place of her own but there were problems". It is a common error to put plane.• See also plane. Pour éviter fautes de grammaire, contresens et confusions. The English Usage Dictionary est le parfait complément des dictionnaires bilingues, du dictionnaire de définitions anglaises et du Thesaurus. Ce dictionnaire signale toutes les difficultés que recèle l'usage d'un mot: orthographe, grammaire, prononciation, homonymies, etc. Exemple d'article du dictionnaire English Usage Dictionary