fairesvsfièresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“faires” and “fières” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,749
“faires” frequency rank
#33,689
“fières” frequency rank
80438
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faires fières
Definition Accusatif neutre singulier de la déclinaison forte de fair. Féminin pluriel de fier.

Where the eye mixes faires and fières

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. faires and fières follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
faires
6 ch
fières

Look-alike desk: faires vs fières

A purely visual mix-up. faires (\ˈfɛːʁəs\) and fières (\fjɛʁ\) 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 80438, 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\. fières is at rank #33,689, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fjɛʁ\.

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 80438, this pair ranks #20,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faires vs fières

Shared letters: efirs. Private to "faires": a. Private to "fières": è.

"faires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "fières" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faires ← afires · faiers · fairess · fairres · fairse · faries · ffaires · fiares

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "faires" and "fières" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈfɛːʁəs\ versus \fjɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "faires" vs "fières" - which ranks higher?
"fières" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,689 in our French list, against #46,749 for "faires". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "faires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fières" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faires" and "fières" 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 #20,920 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