Which to use
“fail” and “fallu” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,588
- “fail” frequency rank
- #3,331
- “fallu” frequency rank
- 27919
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fail | fallu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Échouer. | Participe passé de falloir. |
Where the eye mixes fail and fallu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between fail and fallu
A purely visual mix-up. fail (\feɪl\) and fallu (\fa.ly\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27919, 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\. fallu is at rank #3,331, tagged as averb, pronounced \fa.ly\.
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 27919, this pair ranks #325,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fail vs fallu
Shared letters: afl. Private to "fail": i. Private to "fallu": u.
"fail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fallu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fail" and "fallu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "fail" or "fallu"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fail" and "fallu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fallu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #325,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fail" and "fallu" 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 #325,956 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.