Which to use
“fastes” and “fentes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,387
- “fastes” frequency rank
- #33,261
- “fentes” frequency rank
- 69648
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fastes | fentes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tables ou livres du calendrier où étaient indiqués les jours de fêtes, d’assemblées publiques, de jeux. | Pluriel de fente. |
Where the eye mixes fastes and fentes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fastes and fentes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses fastes with fentes
A purely visual mix-up. fastes (\fast\) and fentes (\fɑ̃t\) 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 69648, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fastes is recorded at frequency rank #36,387, classified as anoun, pronounced \fast\. fentes is at rank #33,261, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɑ̃t\.
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 69648, this pair ranks #54,351 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fastes vs fentes
Shared letters: efst. Private to "fastes": a. Private to "fentes": n.
"fastes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fentes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fastes" and "fentes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "fastes" vs "fentes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fastes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fentes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,351 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fastes" and "fentes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fakes vs fastes". 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 #54,351 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.