faillesvsfairesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: failles is a noun, faires is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“failles” is a noun and “faires” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,382
“failles” frequency rank
#46,749
“faires” frequency rank
59131
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature failles faires
Definition Pluriel de faille. Accusatif neutre singulier de la déclinaison forte de fair.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set failles and faires apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
failles
6 ch
faires

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: failles is \faj\ while faires is \ˈfɛːʁəs\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59131, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

failles is recorded at frequency rank #12,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \faj\. faires is at rank #46,749, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈfɛːʁəs\.

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 59131, this pair ranks #104,901 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of failles vs faires

Shared letters: aefis. Private to "failles": l. Private to "faires": r.

"failles" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "faires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faillesafilles · failels · failes · failless · faillse · faliles · ffailles · fialles
  • fairesafires · faiers · fairess · fairres · fairse · faries · ffaires · fiares

Frequency comparison

failles#12,382
faires#46,749

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "failles" and "faires" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "failles" is a noun and "faires" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "failles" or "faires"?
"failles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,382 in our French list, against #46,749 for "faires". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering failles vs faires

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “failles”; for an adjective, it's “faires”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “failles” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list