faisvsfusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#190
“fais” frequency rank
#19,029
“fus” frequency rank
19219
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fais fus
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de faire. Première personne du singulier du passé simple de être.

Where the eye mixes fais and fus

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

4 ch
fais
3 ch
fus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. fais (\fɛ\) and fus (\fy\) 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 19219, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fais is recorded at frequency rank #190, classified as averb, pronounced \fɛ\. fus is at rank #19,029, tagged as averb, pronounced \fy\.

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 19219, this pair ranks #374,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fais vs fus

Shared letters: fs. Private to "fais": ai. Private to "fus": u.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faisafis · faiss · fasi · ffais · fias

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fais" and "fus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fɛ\ versus \fy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fais" or "fus"?
"fais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #190 in our French list, against #19,029 for "fus". 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 "fus". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #374,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fais" and "fus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fus". 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