facilevsfacultéWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: facile is a adjective, faculté is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“facile” is an adjective and “faculté” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#654
“facile” frequency rank
#3,609
“faculté” frequency rank
4263
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature facile faculté
Definition Qui se fait sans peine. Puissance physique ou morale qui rend un être capable d’agir d’une certaine manière, de produire certains effets.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set facile and faculté apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
facile
7 ch
faculté

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: facile is \fa.sil\ while faculté is \fa.kyl.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

facile is recorded at frequency rank #654, classified as anadj, pronounced \fa.sil\. faculté is at rank #3,609, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fa.kyl.te\.

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 4263, this pair ranks #432,041 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of facile vs faculté

Shared letters: acfl. Private to "facile": ei. Private to "faculté": tué.

"facile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "faculté" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • facileafcile · faccile · faciel · facille · faclie · faicle · fcaile · ffacile

Frequency comparison

facile#654
faculté#3,609

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "facile" and "faculté" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "facile" is an adjective and "faculté" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "facile" or "faculté"?
"facile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #654 in our French list, against #3,609 for "faculté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering facile vs faculté

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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