facevsfakesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“face” and “fakes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#311
“face” frequency rank
#48,524
“fakes” frequency rank
48835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature face fakes
Definition Visage. Pluriel de fake.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set face and fakes apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
face
5 ch
fakes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. face (\fas\) and fakes (\fɛk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

face is recorded at frequency rank #311, classified as anoun, pronounced \fas\. fakes is at rank #48,524, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛk\.

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 48835, this pair ranks #175,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of face vs fakes

Shared letters: aef. Private to "face": c. Private to "fakes": ks.

"face" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "fakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faceafce · facce · faec · fcae · fface
  • fakesafkes · faeks · fakess · fakkes · fakse · ffakes · fkaes

Frequency comparison

face#311
fakes#48,524

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "face" and "fakes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fas\ versus \fɛk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "face" or "fakes"?
"face" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #311 in our French list, against #48,524 for "fakes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering face vs fakes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “face” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list