facesvsfageWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,157
“faces” frequency rank
#48,521
“fage” frequency rank
58678
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faces fage
Definition Pluriel de face. Bonbon.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
faces
4 ch
fage

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. faces (\fas\) and fage (\ˈfagɛ\) 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 58678, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faces is recorded at frequency rank #10,157, classified as anoun, pronounced \fas\. fage is at rank #48,521, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈfagɛ\.

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 58678, this pair ranks #107,589 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faces vs fage

Shared letters: aef. Private to "faces": cs. Private to "fage": g.

"faces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "fage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • facesafces · facces · facess · facse · faecs · fcaes · ffaces
  • fageafge · faeg · fagge · ffage · fgae

Frequency comparison

faces#10,157
fage#48,521

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "faces" and "fage" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fas\ versus \ˈfagɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "faces" or "fage"?
"faces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,157 in our French list, against #48,521 for "fage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering faces vs fage

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 “faces” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list