facesvsfoiesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,157
“faces” frequency rank
#47,901
“foies” frequency rank
58058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faces foies
Definition Pluriel de face. Pluriel de foie.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
faces
5 ch
foies

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. faces (\fas\) and foies (\fwa\) 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 58058, 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\. foies is at rank #47,901, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwa\.

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 58058, this pair ranks #111,306 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faces vs foies

Shared letters: efs. Private to "faces": ac. Private to "foies": io.

"faces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "foies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • facesafces · facces · facess · facse · faecs · fcaes · ffaces
  • foiesffoies · fioes · foeis · foiess · foise · ofies

Frequency comparison

faces#10,157
foies#47,901

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "faces" and "foies" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fas\ versus \fwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "faces" or "foies"?
"faces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,157 in our French list, against #47,901 for "foies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering faces vs foies

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