Which to use
“fail” is a verb and “failli” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,588
- “fail” frequency rank
- #4,669
- “failli” frequency rank
- 29257
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fail | failli |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Échouer. | Se dit d'un chevron, d'une bande, d'une fasce, d'un pal, d'un meuble quelconque, dont la longueur ou la largeur se trouve interrompue par un vide parfaitement carré ou le séparant en deux. |
Where the eye mixes fail and failli
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses fail with failli
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fail is \feɪl\ while failli is \fa.ji\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fail” sits inside “failli”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fail is recorded at frequency rank #24,588, classified as averb, pronounced \feɪl\. failli is at rank #4,669, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fa.ji\.
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 29257, this pair ranks #317,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fail vs failli
Shared letters: afil. Private to "fail": -. Private to "failli": -.
"fail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "failli" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fail" and "failli" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "fail" or "failli" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "failli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #317,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fail" and "failli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fail vs FIV". 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 #317,797 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.