Which to use
“faut” and “fus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #105
- “faut” frequency rank
- #19,029
- “fus” frequency rank
- 19134
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faut | fus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de falloir. | Première personne du singulier du passé simple de être. |
Where the eye mixes faut and fus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: faut vs fus
A purely visual mix-up. faut (\fo\) and fus (\fy\) 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 19134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faut is recorded at frequency rank #105, classified as averb, pronounced \fo\. fus is at rank #19,029, tagged as averb, pronounced \fy\.
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 19134, this pair ranks #374,810 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faut vs fus
Shared letters: fu. Private to "faut": at. Private to "fus": s.
"faut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fus" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- faut ← afut · fatu · fautt · ffaut · fuat
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "faut" and "fus" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "faut" vs "fus" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "faut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,810 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faut" and "fus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fus". 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 #374,810 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.