Which to use
“faste” is an adjective and “fosse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,550
- “faste” frequency rank
- #7,964
- “fosse” frequency rank
- 31514
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faste | fosse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Propice, favorable, heureux, où tout réussit. | Cavité dans le sol, le plus souvent artificielle. |
Where the eye mixes faste and fosse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. faste and fosse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses faste with fosse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: faste is \fast\ while fosse is \fos\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faste is recorded at frequency rank #23,550, classified as anadj, pronounced \fast\. fosse is at rank #7,964, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fos\.
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 31514, this pair ranks #303,341 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of faste vs fosse
Shared letters: efs. Private to "faste": at. Private to "fosse": o.
"faste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "faste" and "fosse" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "faste" or "fosse"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "faste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fosse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #303,341 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faste" and "fosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fange vs faste". 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 #303,341 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.