Which to use
“failles” and “fouilles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,382
- “failles” frequency rank
- #8,712
- “fouilles” frequency rank
- 21094
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | failles | fouilles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de faille. | Pluriel de fouille. |
Where the eye mixes failles and fouilles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. failles runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against fouilles's 8 (CVVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses failles with fouilles
A purely visual mix-up. failles (\faj\) and fouilles (\fuj\) 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 21094, 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\. fouilles is at rank #8,712, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuj\.
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 21094, this pair ranks #364,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of failles vs fouilles
Shared letters: efils. Private to "failles": a. Private to "fouilles": ou.
"failles" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "fouilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "failles" and "fouilles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "failles" or "fouilles" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "failles" and "fouilles" 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 "fouilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #364,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "failles" and "fouilles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "failles vs faires". 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 #364,891 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.