Which to use
“faille” and “file” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,087
- “faille” frequency rank
- #3,678
- “file” frequency rank
- 9765
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faille | file |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure. | Suite ou rangée de choses ou de personnes disposées en long et l’une derrière l’autre. |
Where the eye mixes faille and file
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: faille vs file
A purely visual mix-up. faille (\faj\) and file (\fil\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9765, 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\. file is at rank #3,678, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fil\.
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 9765, this pair ranks #415,487 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faille vs file
Shared letters: efil. Private to "faille": a. Private to "file": -.
"faille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "file" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "faille" and "file" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "faille" or "file" show up more?
What to do next
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 "file" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #415,487 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faille" and "file" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "file vs filez". 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 #415,487 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.