facilementvsfaiblementWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,261
“facilement” frequency rank
#16,361
“faiblement” frequency rank
17622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature facilement faiblement
Definition Avec facilité ; sans peine. D’une manière faible.

Where the eye mixes facilement and faiblement

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. facilement (CVCVCVCVCC) and faiblement (CVVCCVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
facilement
10 ch
faiblement

Look-alike desk: facilement vs faiblement

A purely visual mix-up. facilement (\fa.sil.mɑ̃\) and faiblement (\fɛ.blə.mɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

facilement is recorded at frequency rank #1,261, classified as anadv, pronounced \fa.sil.mɑ̃\. faiblement is at rank #16,361, tagged as anadv, pronounced \fɛ.blə.mɑ̃\.

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 17622, this pair ranks #382,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of facilement vs faiblement

Shared letters: aefilmnt. Private to "facilement": c. Private to "faiblement": b.

"facilement" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCC  ·  "faiblement" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • facilement ← afcilement · faccilement · facielment · facileemnt · facilemennt · facilementt · facilemetn · facilemment
  • faiblement ← afiblement · fabilement · faibblement · faibelment · faibleemnt · faiblemennt · faiblementt · faiblemetn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "facilement" and "faiblement" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fa.sil.mɑ̃\ versus \fɛ.blə.mɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "facilement" or "faiblement"?
"facilement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,261 in our French list, against #16,361 for "faiblement". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "facilement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "faiblement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #382,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "facilement" and "faiblement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faiblement vs fatalement". 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 #382,283 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