Easily Confused Words: Piazza vs. Plaza

Piazza and plaza are easily confused words.

The spell-check application of most word processing software programs would not catch a slip-up of these two words. Spell-check is looking for words that aren’t in its dictionary, and words that resemble words in its dictionary, but are possibly spelled wrong. Spell-check isn’t perfect. It doesn’t know and can’t guess what word you wanted, or what word you meant, it can only judge the words on the page. If you used words that are all spelled correctly, it gives you a pass anyway. 

Autocorrect suggests words that start with the same letters. It’s suggesting what word you may want to save time, but quite often, its suggestions are pretty off base. They don’t help you out, but they do make you laugh.

Piazza (pronounced “pee-ahz-uh”) is an Italian word that’s found its way into English. It means large public squares for pedestrians and bicyclists, but not cars.

Plaza (pronounced “plah-zuh”) is a Spanish word that’s found its way into English. It also means a public square,

• In the US, its come to mean a strip mall with parking. Most of the time, shoppers drive in a car, or take public transit, to get to a shopping plaza.
• It can also mean another way to say “rest area.” This is a building along a major highway or expressway that houses public toilets, vending machines, and seating for eating outside. There may also be tourism brochures for the area where you are traveling.

The following story uses both words correctly:

Paz was surprised there weren’t more piazzas near the US beaches she visited. Santa Monica Pier and Atlantic City came closer to her expectations, but other beaches had a fishing pier, or a simple wooden sidewalk for winding its way to the beach. Some beaches had amusement parks and shopping at the beach, while others focused on the “interacting with the ocean and nature” experience.

She had also really hoped to travel more on foot once she arrived in a city, and that was proving difficult, so she hired a driver in each spot. It was interesting to meet people in each city and talk to them about their life there. Some people were very resourceful about their surroundings, they knew which plaza had what stores, or a hair and nail salon. Other people would say, “Can’t you google it? I’m not a nav’gator or a consarge. I just drive, lady.”

This post relates to another post: Easily Confused Words: Pizza vs. Pizzazz