Which to use
“failles” is a noun and “fatales” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,382
- “failles” frequency rank
- #33,259
- “fatales” frequency rank
- 45641
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | failles | fatales |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de faille. | Féminin pluriel de fatal. |
Where the eye mixes failles and fatales
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. failles (CVVCCVC) and fatales (CVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses failles with fatales
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: failles is \faj\ while fatales is \fa.tal\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45641, 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\. fatales is at rank #33,259, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fa.tal\.
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 45641, this pair ranks #201,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of failles vs fatales
Shared letters: aefls. Private to "failles": i. Private to "fatales": t.
"failles" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "fatales" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "failles" and "fatales" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "failles" or "fatales" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "failles" and "fatales" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "failles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fatales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "failles" and "fatales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fœtale vs fatales". 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 #201,189 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.