falloir

\fa.lwaʁ\

/\fa.lwaʁ\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“falloir” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #2,923. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,923
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Être de nécessité, de devoir, d’obligation, de bienséance.

Corpus desk

Index FR-falloir · falloir · French

falloir · rank #2,923 · 8 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,923
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH exécution

Nearest frequency peer: exécution (-1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « falloir »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « falloir » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

falloir vs Fallon
57% similar
falloir vs fallout
71% similar
falloir vs fallait
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for falloir
PropertyValue
Headwordfalloir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\fa.lwaʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#2,923
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « falloir »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).falloirse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « exécution » (#2,922), « fausse » (#2,924), « explication » (#2,921). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « falloir » est au #2,923. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around falloir (IPA \fa.lwaʁ\), averb. Corpus frequency is #2,923 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for falloir, with forms such as "aflloir", "fallior", and "falloirr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Fallon", "fallout", "fallait", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is falloir, spelled F-A-L-L-O-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Être de nécessité, de devoir, d’obligation, de bienséance.
  2. 2
    Être ce dont on a besoin.
  3. 3
    Ce que l’on doit donner d’argent à quelqu’un pour un prix, pour un salaire.
  4. 4
    Manquer.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Rabalan se sentit troublé. Du moment que le maire affirmait d’une façon aussi autoritaire qu’il était sorcier, il fallait le croire… Ça l’étonnait pourtant.
  2. Les prairies, émaillées de saxifrages, sont clôturées de murs en pierres sèches qu'il nous faut franchir à tout instant.

This word in other languages

have to(English)hacer falta(Español)benötigen(Deutsch)precisar(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • aflloir
  • fallior
  • falloirr
  • fallori
  • faloir
  • falolir
  • ffalloir
  • flaloir

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of falloir - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

aflloir2fallior2falloirr1fallori2faloir1falolir2ffalloir1flaloir2
Edit distance from "falloir"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "falloir"?
"falloir" is spelled F-A-L-L-O-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \fa.lwaʁ\.
What does "falloir" mean?
As a verb, "falloir" means: Être de nécessité, de devoir, d’obligation, de bienséance.
What words are commonly confused with "falloir"?
"falloir" is commonly confused with "Fallon", "fallout", "fallait". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "falloir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "falloir" is \fa.lwaʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "falloir" come from?
"falloir" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "falloir", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

oiseaux#2,940parlait#2,946sondage#2,899reprend#2,895

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

douche8 variantsfortes8 variantscycle8 variantsfêtes8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list