fairesvsfixésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,749
“faires” frequency rank
#9,834
“fixés” frequency rank
56583
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faires fixés
Definition Accusatif neutre singulier de la déclinaison forte de fair. Masculin pluriel de fixé.

Where the eye mixes faires and fixés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. faires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against fixés's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
faires
5 ch
fixés

Visual trap between faires and fixés

A purely visual mix-up. faires (\ˈfɛːʁəs\) and fixés (\fik.se\) 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 56583, 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\. fixés is at rank #9,834, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fik.se\.

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 56583, this pair ranks #120,190 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of faires vs fixés

Shared letters: fis. Private to "faires": aer. Private to "fixés": xé.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "faires" for "fixés" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈfɛːʁəs\ versus \fik.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "faires" or "fixés"?
"fixés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,834 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.

What to do next

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 "fixés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #120,190 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faires" and "fixés" 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 #120,190 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