fairesvsfoiesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#46,749
“faires” frequency rank
#47,901
“foies” frequency rank
94650
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faires foies
Definition Accusatif neutre singulier de la déclinaison forte de fair. Pluriel de foie.

Where the eye mixes faires and foies

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
faires
5 ch
foies

Why the eye confuses faires with foies

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: faires is \ˈfɛːʁəs\ while foies is \fwa\. 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 94650, 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\. foies is at rank #47,901, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwa\.

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 94650, this pair ranks #1,518 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faires vs foies

Shared letters: efis. Private to "faires": ar. Private to "foies": o.

"faires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "foies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fairesafires · faiers · fairess · fairres · fairse · faries · ffaires · fiares
  • foiesffoies · fioes · foeis · foiess · foise · ofies

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "faires" and "foies" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "faires" is an adjective and "foies" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "faires" vs "foies" - which ranks higher?
"faires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,749 in our French list, against #47,901 for "foies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "foies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,518 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faires" and "foies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs fouets". 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 #1,518 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