fairesvsfoiresWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#46,749
“faires” frequency rank
#16,134
“foires” frequency rank
62883
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faires foires
Definition Accusatif neutre singulier de la déclinaison forte de fair. Pluriel de foire.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set faires and foires apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
faires
6 ch
foires

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: faires is \ˈfɛːʁəs\ while foires is \fwaʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “faires” becomes o in “foires”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62883, 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\. foires is at rank #16,134, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwaʁ\.

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 62883, this pair ranks #84,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faires vs foires

Shared letters: efirs. Private to "faires": a. Private to "foires": o.

"faires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "foires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fairesafires · faiers · fairess · fairres · fairse · faries · ffaires · fiares
  • foiresffoires · fiores · foiers · foiress · foirres · foirse · fories · ofires

Frequency comparison

faires#46,749
foires#16,134

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "faires" and "foires" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "faires" is an adjective and "foires" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "faires" or "foires"?
"foires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,134 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.

Remembering faires vs foires

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “faires”; for a noun, it's “foires”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “faires” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list