farvsfateWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: far is a adverb, fate is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,732
“far” frequency rank
#42,443
“fate” frequency rank
62175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature far fate
Definition Lejos. Vanidosa, forma femenina singular del adjetivo fat.

Where the eye mixes far and fate

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

3 ch
far
4 ch
fate

Why the eye confuses far with fate

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: far is /fɑː/ while fate is [fat]. 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 (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

far is recorded at frequency rank #19,732, classified as anadv, pronounced /fɑː/. fate is at rank #42,443, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fat].

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 62175, this pair ranks #52,897 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of far vs fate

Shared letters: af. Private to "far": r. Private to "fate": et.

"far" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fateafte · faet · fatte · ffate · ftae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "far" and "fate" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "far" is an adverb and "fate" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "far" or "fate" show up more?
"far" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,732 in our Spanish list, against #42,443 for "fate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "far" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,897 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "far" and "fate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fate vs fuste". 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 #52,897 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list