falaisesvsfraisesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,133
“falaises” frequency rank
#12,579
“fraises” frequency rank
29712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature falaises fraises
Definition Pluriel de falaise. Pluriel de fraise.

Where the eye mixes falaises and fraises

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. falaises runs 8 letters (CVCVVCVC) against fraises's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
falaises
7 ch
fraises

Why the eye confuses falaises with fraises

A purely visual mix-up. falaises (\fa.lɛz\) and fraises (\fʁɛz\) 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 29712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

falaises is recorded at frequency rank #17,133, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.lɛz\. fraises is at rank #12,579, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁɛz\.

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 29712, this pair ranks #314,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of falaises vs fraises

Shared letters: aefis. Private to "falaises": l. Private to "fraises": r.

"falaises" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "fraises" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • falaisesaflaises · faalises · falaiess · falaisess · falaisses · falasies · faliases · fallaises
  • fraisesfarises · ffraises · fraiess · fraisess · fraisses · frasies · friases · frraises

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "falaises" for "fraises" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fa.lɛz\ versus \fʁɛz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "falaises" or "fraises"?
"fraises" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,579 in our French list, against #17,133 for "falaises". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "falaises" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fraises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #314,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "falaises" and "fraises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fraises vs frises". 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 #314,960 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