Which to use
“faces” and “fêtes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,157
- “faces” frequency rank
- #2,929
- “fêtes” frequency rank
- 13086
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faces | fêtes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de face. | Pluriel de fête. |
Where the eye mixes faces and fêtes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: faces vs fêtes
A purely visual mix-up. faces (\fas\) and fêtes (\fɛt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13086, 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\. fêtes is at rank #2,929, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛt\.
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 13086, this pair ranks #402,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faces vs fêtes
Shared letters: efs. Private to "faces": ac. Private to "fêtes": tê.
"faces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "fêtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- faces ← afces · facces · facess · facse · faecs · fcaes · ffaces
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "faces" and "fêtes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "faces" or "fêtes"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "faces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fêtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faces" and "fêtes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faces vs fakes". 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 #402,500 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.