fas vs fois, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#47,890
“fas” frequency rank: #104
“fois” frequency rank: 47994
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fas	fois
Definition	Face, figure, visage.	Nom qui se joint à un adjectif numéral pour indiquer qu’un fait s’est produit ou s’est répété.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fas and fois apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

fas

4 ch

fois

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. fas (\ˈfasː\) and fois (\fwa\) 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 47994, 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\. fois is at rank #104, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwa\.

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 47994, this pair ranks #182,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fas vs fois

Shared letters: fs. Private to "fas": a. Private to "fois": io.

"fas" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "fois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

fois ← ffois · fios · foiss · fosi · ofis

Frequency comparison

fas#47,890

fois#104

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fas" and "fois" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\ˈfasː\ versus \fwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "fas" or "fois"?

"fois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #104 in our French list, against #47,890 for "fas". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering fas vs fois

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 “fas” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable