Which to use
“faible” is an adjective and “faille” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,028
- “faible” frequency rank
- #6,087
- “faille” frequency rank
- 7115
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faible | faille |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est débile, qui manque de force, de vigueur. | Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure. |
Where the eye mixes faible and faille
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: faible vs faille
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: faible is \fɛbl\ while faille is \faj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - b in “faible” becomes l in “faille”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7115, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faible is recorded at frequency rank #1,028, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɛbl\. faille is at rank #6,087, tagged as anoun, pronounced \faj\.
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 7115, this pair ranks #424,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faible vs faille
Shared letters: aefil. Private to "faible": b. Private to "faille": -.
"faible" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "faille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "faible" for "faille" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "faible" or "faille" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "faible" and "faille" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "faible" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #424,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faible" and "faille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faible vs friable". 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 #424,195 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.