fai vs far, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“fai” is a verb and “far” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,830
“fai” frequency rank: #19,732
“far” frequency rank: 60562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fai	far
Definition	Tercera persona del singular (el, ela, vostede) del presente de indicativo de facer.	Lejos.

Where the eye mixes fai and far

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

fai

3 ch

far

Why the eye confuses fai with far

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fai is [ˈfa̠j] while far is /fɑː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “fai” becomes r in “far”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fai is recorded at frequency rank #40,830, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈfa̠j]. far is at rank #19,732, tagged as anadv, pronounced /fɑː/.

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 60562, this pair ranks #58,511 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fai vs far

Shared letters: af. Private to "fai": i. Private to "far": r.

"fai" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "far" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fai" for "far" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fai" is a verb and "far" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "fai" vs "far" - which ranks higher?

"far" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,732 in our Spanish list, against #40,830 for "fai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "fai" and "far" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "fai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "far" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #58,511 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"fai" and "far" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fai vs falo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #58,511 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.