fairesvsfakesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#46,749
“faires” frequency rank
#48,524
“fakes” frequency rank
95273
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faires fakes
Definition Accusatif neutre singulier de la déclinaison forte de fair. Pluriel de fake.

Where the eye mixes faires and fakes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. faires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against fakes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
faires
5 ch
fakes

Visual trap between faires and fakes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: faires is \ˈfɛːʁəs\ while fakes is \fɛk\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 95273, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faires is recorded at frequency rank #46,749, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈfɛːʁəs\. fakes is at rank #48,524, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛk\.

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 95273, this pair ranks #1,171 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faires vs fakes

Shared letters: aefs. Private to "faires": ir. Private to "fakes": k.

"faires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "fakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fairesafires · faiers · fairess · fairres · fairse · faries · ffaires · fiares
  • fakesafkes · faeks · fakess · fakkes · fakse · ffakes · fkaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "faires" for "fakes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "faires" is an adjective and "fakes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "faires" vs "fakes" - which ranks higher?
"faires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,749 in our French list, against #48,524 for "fakes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "faires" and "fakes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "faires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fakes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,171 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faires" and "fakes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fage vs fakes". 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 #1,171 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list