fâchéevsfâcherTell them apart

Quick tell: fâchée is a adjective, fâcher is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fâchée” is an adjective and “fâcher” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,452
“fâchée” frequency rank
#23,221
“fâcher” frequency rank
50673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fâchée fâcher
Definition Féminin singulier de fâché. Mettre en colère, irriter.

Same sound, different letters: fâchée vs fâcher

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. fâchée (CVCCVV) and fâcher (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
fâchée
6 ch
fâcher

Same sound, different spelling - fâchée / fâcher

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: fâchée and fâcher carry the same recorded pronunciation, \fɑ.ʃe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fâchée is recorded at frequency rank #27,452, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɑ.ʃe\. fâcher is at rank #23,221, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɑ.ʃe\.

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 50673, this pair ranks #160,819 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fâchée vs fâcher

Shared letters: cefhâ. Private to "fâchée": é. Private to "fâcher": r.

"fâchée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "fâcher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fâchée" and "fâcher" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fâchée" is an adjective and "fâcher" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fâchée" or "fâcher"?
"fâcher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,221 in our French list, against #27,452 for "fâchée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fâchée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fâcher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #160,819 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fâchée" and "fâcher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fâcher vs Fincher". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #160,819 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