Which to use
“faillit” and “fallait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,834
- “faillit” frequency rank
- #1,091
- “fallait” frequency rank
- 20925
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faillit | fallait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de faillir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de falloir. |
Where the eye mixes faillit and fallait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses faillit with fallait
A purely visual mix-up. faillit (\fa.ji\) and fallait (\fa.lɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faillit is recorded at frequency rank #19,834, classified as averb, pronounced \fa.ji\. fallait is at rank #1,091, tagged as averb, pronounced \fa.lɛ\.
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 20925, this pair ranks #365,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faillit vs fallait
Shared letters: afilt. Private to "faillit": -. Private to "fallait": -.
"faillit" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "fallait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "faillit" for "fallait" ever safe?
Frequency check: "faillit" vs "fallait" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "faillit" and "fallait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "faillit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fallait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #365,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faillit" and "fallait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faiblir vs faillit". 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 #365,786 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.