faisanvsfaisansWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#38,797
“faisan” frequency rank
#48,523
“faisans” frequency rank
87320
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faisan faisans
Definition Nom donné à cinq genres de gallinacés de la famille des phasianidés, englobant une vintaine d'espèces qui fréquentent différents habitats forestiers dans les vallées et les montagnes de toute l'Asie du Sud-Est, présentant un dimorphisme sexuel prononcé et où le mâle arbore souvent un plumage multicolore et richement orné. Pluriel de faisan.

Same sound, different letters: faisan vs faisans

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
faisan
7 ch
faisans

Ear matches; page differs - faisan and faisans

This is the hard kind. faisan and faisans are pronounced identically (\fə.zɑ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “faisan” sits inside “faisans”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87320, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faisan is recorded at frequency rank #38,797, classified as anoun, pronounced \fə.zɑ̃\. faisans is at rank #48,523, tagged as anoun, 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 87320, this pair ranks #8,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faisan vs faisans

Shared letters: afins. Private to "faisan": -. Private to "faisans": -.

"faisan" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "faisans" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faisanafisan · faiasn · faisann · faisna · faissan · fasian · ffaisan · fiasan
  • faisansafisans · faiasns · faisanns · faisanss · faisasn · faisnas · faissans · fasians

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "faisan" and "faisans" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fə.zɑ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "faisan" or "faisans"?
"faisan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,797 in our French list, against #48,523 for "faisans". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"faisan" and "faisans" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "faisan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "faisans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faisan" and "faisans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faisan vs foison". 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 #8,422 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