fastvsFESWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fast is a adjective, FES is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fast” is an adjective and “FES” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#767
“fast” frequency rank
#39,812
“FES” frequency rank
40579
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fast FES
Definition Firmly or securely fixed in place; stable. Initialism of floppy eyelid syndrome

Letter map: fast vs FES

Shared letters muted; letters that set fast and FES apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
fast
3 ch
FES

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fast is anadjective and FESanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fast is recorded at frequency rank #767, classified as anadj, pronounced /fɑːst/. FES is at rank #39,812, tagged as anoun.

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 40579, this pair ranks #266,272 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fast vs FES

Shared letters: fs. Private to "fast": at. Private to "FES": e.

"fast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "FES" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fastafst · fasst · fastt · ffast · fsat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fast" and "FES" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fast" is an adjective and "FES" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fast" or "FES"?
"fast" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #767 in our English list, against #39,812 for "FES". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list