Which to use
“faille” and “folle” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,087
- “faille” frequency rank
- #3,074
- “folle” frequency rank
- 9161
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faille | folle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure. | Filet à larges mailles, tendu lâche. |
Where the eye mixes faille and folle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: faille vs folle
A purely visual mix-up. faille (\faj\) and folle (\fɔl\) 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 9161, 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\. folle is at rank #3,074, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔl\.
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 9161, this pair ranks #417,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faille vs folle
Shared letters: efl. Private to "faille": ai. Private to "folle": o.
"faille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "folle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "faille" and "folle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "faille" vs "folle" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "faille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "folle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faille" and "folle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faille vs fill". 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 #417,606 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.