Which to use
“fay” is a noun and “fey” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,636
- “fay” frequency rank
- #43,868
- “fey” frequency rank
- 90504
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fay | fey |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | eine Fee | (aus dem schottischen) todgeweiht |
Letter map: fay vs fey
Shared letters muted; letters that set fay and fey apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. fay and fey follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - fay and fey
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fay is anoun and feyanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “fay” becomes e in “fey”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fay is recorded at frequency rank #46,636, classified as anoun, pronounced [feɪ]. fey is at rank #43,868, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].
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 90504, this pair ranks #46,392 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fay vs fey
Shared letters: fy. Private to "fay": a. Private to "fey": e.
"fay" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "fey" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fay" for "fey" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fay" or "fey"?
What to do next
You've compared "fay" and "fey". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "fay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,392 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fay" and "fey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fairy vs fay". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #46,392 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.