faisvsfitWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fais is a verb, fit is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fais” is a verb and “fit” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#190
“fais” frequency rank
#2,175
“fit” frequency rank
2365
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fais fit
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de faire. En bonne santé, en pleine forme.

Where the eye mixes fais and fit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
fais
3 ch
fit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fais is \fɛ\ while fit is \fit\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2365, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fais is recorded at frequency rank #190, classified as averb, pronounced \fɛ\. fit is at rank #2,175, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fit\.

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 2365, this pair ranks #436,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fais vs fit

Shared letters: fi. Private to "fais": as. Private to "fit": t.

"fais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "fit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faisafis · faiss · fasi · ffais · fias

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fais" and "fit" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fais" is a verb and "fit" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fais" or "fit"?
"fais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #190 in our French list, against #2,175 for "fit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "fais" and "fit". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fais" and "fit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fit". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list