Which to use
“facile” is an adjective and “faufile” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #654
- “facile” frequency rank
- #47,892
- “faufile” frequency rank
- 48546
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | facile | faufile |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui se fait sans peine. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de faufiler. |
Where the eye mixes facile and faufile
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. facile runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against faufile's 7 (CVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: facile vs faufile
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: facile is \fa.sil\ while faufile is \fo.fil\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48546, 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\. faufile is at rank #47,892, tagged as averb, pronounced \fo.fil\.
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 48546, this pair ranks #178,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of facile vs faufile
Shared letters: aefil. Private to "facile": c. Private to "faufile": u.
"facile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "faufile" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "facile" for "faufile" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "facile" or "faufile" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "facile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faufile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "facile" and "faufile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faufile vs fautive". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #178,067 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.