fâchevsfâchentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,560
“fâche” frequency rank
#40,284
“fâchent” frequency rank
63844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fâche fâchent
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de fâcher. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de fâcher.

Same sound, different letters: fâche vs fâchent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. fâche runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against fâchent's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
fâche
7 ch
fâchent

Ear matches; page differs - fâche and fâchent

This is the hard kind. fâche and fâchent are pronounced identically (\fɑʃ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fâche” sits inside “fâchent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fâche is recorded at frequency rank #23,560, classified as averb, pronounced \fɑʃ\. fâchent is at rank #40,284, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɑʃ\.

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 63844, this pair ranks #79,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fâche vs fâchent

Shared letters: cefhâ. Private to "fâche": -. Private to "fâchent": nt.

"fâche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fâchent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fâche" and "fâchent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fɑʃ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "fâche" vs "fâchent" - which ranks higher?
"fâche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,560 in our French list, against #40,284 for "fâchent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"fâche" and "fâchent" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fâche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fâchent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fâche" and "fâchent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fâche vs fange". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #79,940 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