farevsfleWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fare is a noun, fle is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fare” is a noun and “fle” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,039
“fare” frequency rank
#39,300
“fle” frequency rank
84339
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fare fle
Definition Pêche solennelle que les pêcheurs faisaient pour leur fête, vers le mois de mai, et qui fut interdite en 1670, parce qu’elle dépeuplait les rivières. Dormir.

Where the eye mixes fare and fle

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

4 ch
fare
3 ch
fle

Visual trap between fare and fle

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fare is \faʁ\ while fle is \ˈfle\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fare is recorded at frequency rank #45,039, classified as anoun, pronounced \faʁ\. fle is at rank #39,300, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈfle\.

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 84339, this pair ranks #13,177 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fare vs fle

Shared letters: ef. Private to "fare": ar. Private to "fle": l.

"fare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "fle" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fareafre · farre · ffare · frae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fare" for "fle" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fare" is a noun and "fle" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fare" or "fle"?
"fle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,300 in our French list, against #45,039 for "fare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,177 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fare" and "fle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fare vs Fee". 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 #13,177 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