face à
\fa.s‿a\
The verdict
“face à” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a preposition. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - En face de.
Corpus desk
Index FR-face-a · face à · French
face à · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | face à |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | \fa.s‿a\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « face à » en français
Rare enough to double-check
face à is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as apreposition, transcribed \fa.s‿a\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
face à has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is face à, spelled F-A-C-E- -À.
Definition
- 1En face de.
- 2Contre.
- 3Montrer.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how face à appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Dans l'espoir de revenir ce soir à la maison couvert de bleus, Pablo saute dans l'arène, ramasse une cape et se fige droit comme un piquet face à la vachette et interpelle la bête. « Hooy toro », de sa petite voix.
La première chose que Franck Provost avait tentée, c’était de les semer en accélérant tant qu’il avait pu. Mais il s’était vite rendu compte qu’avec une Twingo fatiguée, c’était peine perdue face à leur BMW…
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.