fabriquevsfabriquésTell them apart

Quick tell: fabrique is a noun, fabriqués is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fabrique” is a noun and “fabriqués” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,755
“fabrique” frequency rank
#10,156
“fabriqués” frequency rank
14911
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fabrique fabriqués
Definition Bâtiment où l’on fabrique des objets destinés aux différents usages de la vie ; usine. Participe passé masculin pluriel de fabriquer.

Where the eye mixes fabrique and fabriqués

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. fabrique runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVV) against fabriqués's 9 (CVCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
fabrique
9 ch
fabriqués

Visual trap between fabrique and fabriqués

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fabrique is \fa.bʁik\ while fabriqués is \fa.bʁi.ke\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fabrique is recorded at frequency rank #4,755, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.bʁik\. fabriqués is at rank #10,156, tagged as averb, pronounced \fa.bʁi.ke\.

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 14911, this pair ranks #394,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fabrique vs fabriqués

Shared letters: abfiqru. Private to "fabrique": e. Private to "fabriqués": sé.

"fabrique" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "fabriqués" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fabrique ← afbrique · fabbrique · fabirque · fabriqeu · fabriqque · fabriuqe · fabrqiue · fabrrique

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fabrique" and "fabriqués" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fabrique" is a noun and "fabriqués" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fabrique" vs "fabriqués" - which ranks higher?
"fabrique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,755 in our French list, against #10,156 for "fabriqués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fabrique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fabriqués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #394,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fabrique" and "fabriqués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fabrique vs féerique". 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 #394,666 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list