fastvsFsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fast is a adverb, Fs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fast” is an adverb and “Fs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,544
“fast” frequency rank
#28,962
“Fs” frequency rank
37506
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fast Fs
Definition Presque, quasiment. Pluriel de F.

Where the eye mixes fast and Fs

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

4 ch
fast
2 ch
Fs

Visual trap between fast and Fs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fast is \fast\ while Fs is \ɛfs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fast is recorded at frequency rank #8,544, classified as anadv, pronounced \fast\. Fs is at rank #28,962, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛfs\.

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 37506, this pair ranks #262,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fast vs Fs

Shared letters: fs. Private to "fast": at. Private to "Fs": -.

"fast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Fs" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fastafst · fasst · fastt · fats · ffast · fsat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fast" for "Fs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fast" is an adverb and "Fs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "fast" or "Fs" show up more?
"fast" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,544 in our French list, against #28,962 for "Fs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Fs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fast" and "Fs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs Fs". 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 #262,033 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