Which to use
“faille” and “feuille” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,087
- “faille” frequency rank
- #3,073
- “feuille” frequency rank
- 9160
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faille | feuille |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure. | Organe aérien et généralement plat des plantes vasculaires, inséré sur la tige, spécialisé dans la photosynthèse, les échanges gazeux et la transpiration. |
Where the eye mixes faille and feuille
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses faille with feuille
A purely visual mix-up. faille (\faj\) and feuille (\fœj\) 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 9160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faille is recorded at frequency rank #6,087, classified as anoun, pronounced \faj\. feuille is at rank #3,073, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fœj\.
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 9160, this pair ranks #417,609 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faille vs feuille
Shared letters: efil. Private to "faille": a. Private to "feuille": u.
"faille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "feuille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "faille" and "feuille" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "faille" or "feuille" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "faille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "feuille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,609 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faille" and "feuille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feuille vs feuilleté". 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 #417,609 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.