faire gaffe

\fɛʁ ɡaf\

/\fɛʁ ɡaf\/ verb

The verdict

“faire gaffe” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Faire attention.

Corpus desk

Index FR-faire-gaffe · faire gaffe · French

faire gaffe · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 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.

Key facts for faire gaffe
PropertyValue
Headwordfaire gaffe
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\fɛʁ ɡaf\
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « faire gaffe » en français

faire gaffesiège au-delà des 100.000 formes les plus fréquentes du français, dans la traîne du lexique spécialisé ou peu usité.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

faire gaffe is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \fɛʁ ɡaf\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for faire gaffe, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is faire gaffe, spelled F-A-I-R-E- -G-A-F-F-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Faire attention.
  2. 2
    Remarquer quelque chose.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how faire gaffe appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Pour piter, ça pitait ce jour-là. A telle enseigne qu’accaparé par les girelles et les sarans que je remontais par paquets, je n’ai pas fait gaffe au mistral qui se levait...
  2. Tu te mets sur la vitre de la fenêtre, par transparence tu calques ton dessin sur l’autre page. Tu fais gaffe à calquer juste au poil, sans ça ça va trembler.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "faire gaffe"?
"faire gaffe" is spelled F-A-I-R-E- -G-A-F-F-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fɛʁ ɡaf\.
What does "faire gaffe" mean?
As a verb, "faire gaffe" means: Faire attention.
How do you pronounce "faire gaffe"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "faire gaffe" is \fɛʁ ɡaf\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "faire gaffe" come from?
"faire gaffe" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list