Which to use
“faires” is an adjective and “fastes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,749
- “faires” frequency rank
- #36,387
- “fastes” frequency rank
- 83136
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faires | fastes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Accusatif neutre singulier de la déclinaison forte de fair. | Tables ou livres du calendrier où étaient indiqués les jours de fêtes, d’assemblées publiques, de jeux. |
Where the eye mixes faires and fastes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. faires (CVVCVC) and fastes (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between faires and fastes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: faires is \ˈfɛːʁəs\ while fastes is \fast\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83136, 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\. fastes is at rank #36,387, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fast\.
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 83136, this pair ranks #15,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of faires vs fastes
Shared letters: aefs. Private to "faires": ir. Private to "fastes": t.
"faires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "fastes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "faires" and "fastes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "faires" or "fastes"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "faires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fastes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #15,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faires" and "fastes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faires 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 #15,394 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.