fasvsfersWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,890
“fas” frequency rank
#19,837
“fers” frequency rank
67727
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fas fers
Definition Face, figure, visage. Pluriel de fer.

Where the eye mixes fas and fers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fas runs 3 letters (CVC) against fers's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
fas
4 ch
fers

Look-alike desk: fas vs fers

A purely visual mix-up. fas (\ˈfasː\) and fers (\fɛʁ\) 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 67727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fas is recorded at frequency rank #47,890, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈfasː\. fers is at rank #19,837, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛʁ\.

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 67727, this pair ranks #62,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fas vs fers

Shared letters: fs. Private to "fas": a. Private to "fers": er.

"fas" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fers ← efrs · ferrs · ferss · fesr · ffers · fres

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fas" and "fers" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈfasː\ versus \fɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fas" vs "fers" - which ranks higher?
"fers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,837 in our French list, against #47,890 for "fas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fas" and "fers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fas 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 #62,159 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