fakesvsfoiesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#48,524
“fakes” frequency rank
#47,901
“foies” frequency rank
96425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fakes foies
Definition Pluriel de fake. Pluriel de foie.

Where the eye mixes fakes and foies

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fakes (CVCVC) and foies (CVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
fakes
5 ch
foies

Visual trap between fakes and foies

A purely visual mix-up. fakes (\fɛk\) and foies (\fwa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 96425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fakes is recorded at frequency rank #48,524, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛk\. foies is at rank #47,901, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwa\.

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 96425, this pair ranks #678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fakes vs foies

Shared letters: efs. Private to "fakes": ak. Private to "foies": io.

"fakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "foies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fakesafkes · faeks · fakess · fakkes · fakse · ffakes · fkaes
  • foiesffoies · fioes · foeis · foiess · foise · ofies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fakes" for "foies" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fɛk\ versus \fwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fakes" vs "foies" - which ranks higher?
"foies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47,901 in our French list, against #48,524 for "fakes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "fakes" and "foies" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fakes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fakes" and "foies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fage vs fakes". 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 #678 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