fâchevsfarceWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fâche is a verb, farce is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fâche” is a verb and “farce” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,560
“fâche” frequency rank
#11,968
“farce” frequency rank
35528
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fâche farce
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de fâcher. Hachis d’ingrédients épicés que l’on introduit dans le ventre vidé de ses entrailles de l’animal destiné à être cuit entier, ou dans un organe creux d’un animal, dans les pâtés, etc.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
fâche
5 ch
farce

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fâche is \fɑʃ\ while farce is \faʁs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35528, 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\. farce is at rank #11,968, tagged as anoun, pronounced \faʁs\.

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 35528, this pair ranks #276,098 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fâche vs farce

Shared letters: cef. Private to "fâche": . Private to "farce": ar.

"fâche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "farce" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • farceafrce · facre · farcce · farec · farrce · ffarce · frace

Frequency comparison

fâche#23,560
farce#11,968

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fâche" and "farce" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fâche" is a verb and "farce" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fâche" or "farce"?
"farce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,968 in our French list, against #23,560 for "fâche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering fâche vs farce

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “fâche”; for a noun, it's “farce”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fâche” 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