Which to use
“favoured” is an adjective and “favours” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,915
- “favoured” frequency rank
- #19,084
- “favours” frequency rank
- 32999
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | favoured | favours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Treated or regarded with partiality. | plural of favour |
Where the eye mixes favoured and favours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: favoured vs favours
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: favoured is /ˈfeɪ.vɚd/ while favours is /ˈfeɪ.vɚz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
favoured is recorded at frequency rank #13,915, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfeɪ.vɚd/. favours is at rank #19,084, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfeɪ.vɚz/.
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 32999, this pair ranks #333,098 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of favoured vs favours
Shared letters: aforuv. Private to "favoured": de. Private to "favours": s.
"favoured" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "favours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "favoured" and "favours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "favoured" vs "favours" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "favoured" and "favours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "favoured" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "favours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #333,098 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "favoured" and "favours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "favoured vs flavoured". 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 #333,098 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.