Which to use
“fail” is a verb and “fas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,588
- “fail” frequency rank
- #47,890
- “fas” frequency rank
- 72478
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fail | fas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Échouer. | Face, figure, visage. |
Where the eye mixes fail and fas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fail runs 4 letters (CVVC) against fas's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fail and fas
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fail is \feɪl\ while fas is \ˈfasː\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72478, 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\. fas is at rank #47,890, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈfasː\.
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 72478, this pair ranks #43,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fail vs fas
Shared letters: af. Private to "fail": il. Private to "fas": s.
"fail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fas" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fail ← afil · faill · fali · ffail · fial
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fail" and "fas" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "fail" vs "fas" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fail" and "fas" 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 "fas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fail" and "fas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fas vs Fee". 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 #43,857 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.