Which to use
“faisait” and “faisant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #671
- “faisait” frequency rank
- #821
- “faisant” frequency rank
- 1492
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faisait | faisant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de faire. | Participe présent du verbe faire. |
Where the eye mixes faisait and faisant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. faisait (CVVCVVC) and faisant (CVVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: faisait vs faisant
A purely visual mix-up. faisait (\fə.zɛ\) and faisant (\fə.zɑ̃\) 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 a single letter - i in “faisait” becomes n in “faisant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faisait is recorded at frequency rank #671, classified as averb, pronounced \fə.zɛ\. faisant is at rank #821, tagged as averb, pronounced \fə.zɑ̃\.
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 1492, this pair ranks #437,969 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faisait vs faisant
Shared letters: afist. Private to "faisait": -. Private to "faisant": n.
"faisait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "faisant" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "faisait" and "faisant" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "faisait" or "faisant"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "faisait" and "faisant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "faisait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faisant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,969 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faisait" and "faisant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faisans vs faisant". 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 #437,969 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.