facultévsfauteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,609
“faculté” frequency rank
#874
“faute” frequency rank
4483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faculté faute
Definition Puissance physique ou morale qui rend un être capable d’agir d’une certaine manière, de produire certains effets. Manquement plus ou moins grave à un devoir, à une loi, à une règle, à un usage, à une convenance.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch
faculté
5 ch
faute

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. faculté (\fa.kyl.te\) and faute (\fot\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faculté is recorded at frequency rank #3,609, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.kyl.te\. faute is at rank #874, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fot\.

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 4483, this pair ranks #431,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of faculté vs faute

Shared letters: aftu. Private to "faculté": clé. Private to "faute": e.

"faculté" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "faute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fauteafute · fatue · fauet · fautte · ffaute · fuate

Frequency comparison

faculté#3,609
faute#874

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "faculté" and "faute" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fa.kyl.te\ versus \fot\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "faculté" or "faute"?
"faute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #874 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 faculté vs faute

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “faculté” 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