fasvsfeyTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,890
“fas” frequency rank
#46,760
“fey” frequency rank
94650
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fas fey
Definition Face, figure, visage. Cône.

Where the eye mixes fas and fey

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. fas (CVC) and fey (CVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
fas
3 ch
fey

Visual trap between fas and fey

A purely visual mix-up. fas (\ˈfasː\) and fey (\fɛj\) 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 94650, 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\. fey is at rank #46,760, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛj\.

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 94650, this pair ranks #1,518 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fas vs fey

Shared letters: f. Private to "fas": as. Private to "fey": ey.

"fas" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fey" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fas" for "fey" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈfasː\ versus \fɛj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fas" or "fey"?
"fey" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,760 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.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,518 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fas" and "fey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fas vs Fee". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,518 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