farevspharesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,039
“fare” frequency rank
#9,363
“phares” frequency rank
54402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fare phares
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. Pluriel de phare.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fare and phares apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
fare
6 ch
phares

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. fare and phares are pronounced identically (\faʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54402, 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\. phares is at rank #9,363, tagged as anoun, pronounced \faʁ\.

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 54402, this pair ranks #134,280 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fare vs phares

Shared letters: aer. Private to "fare": f. Private to "phares": hps.

"fare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "phares" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fareafre · farre · ffare · frae
  • phareshpares · pahres · phaers · pharess · pharres · phhares · pphares

Frequency comparison

fare#45,039
phares#9,363

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fare" and "phares" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\faʁ\), 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, "fare" or "phares"?
"phares" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,363 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.

Remembering fare vs phares

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fare” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list