faurevsfautTell them apart

Quick tell: faure is a noun, faut is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“faure” is a noun and “faut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,877
“faure” frequency rank
#105
“faut” frequency rank
15982
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faure faut
Definition Forgeron. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de falloir.

Where the eye mixes faure and faut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
faure
4 ch
faut

Visual trap between faure and faut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: faure is \ˈfawre\ while faut is \fo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15982, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faure is recorded at frequency rank #15,877, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈfawre\. faut is at rank #105, tagged as averb, pronounced \fo\.

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 15982, this pair ranks #389,947 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of faure vs faut

Shared letters: afu. Private to "faure": er. Private to "faut": t.

"faure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "faut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faureafure · farue · fauer · faurre · ffaure · fuare
  • fautafut · fatu · fautt · ffaut · fuat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "faure" and "faut" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "faure" is a noun and "faut" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "faure" vs "faut" - which ranks higher?
"faut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #105 in our French list, against #15,877 for "faure". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "faure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "faut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #389,947 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faure" and "faut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fange vs faure". 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 #389,947 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