fautesvsfauteursWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“fautes” and “fauteurs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,233
“fautes” frequency rank
#42,335
“fauteurs” frequency rank
46568
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fautes fauteurs
Definition Pluriel de faute. Pluriel de fauteur.

Where the eye mixes fautes and fauteurs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. fautes runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against fauteurs's 8 (CVVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fautes
8 ch
fauteurs

Look-alike desk: fautes vs fauteurs

A purely visual mix-up. fautes (\fot\) and fauteurs (\fo.tœʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46568, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fautes is recorded at frequency rank #4,233, classified as anoun, pronounced \fot\. fauteurs is at rank #42,335, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fo.tœʁ\.

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 46568, this pair ranks #193,878 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fautes vs fauteurs

Shared letters: aefstu. Private to "fautes": -. Private to "fauteurs": r.

"fautes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "fauteurs" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fautesafutes · fatues · fauets · fautess · fautse · fauttes · ffautes · fuates
  • fauteursafuteurs · fatueurs · faueturs · fauterus · fauteurrs · fauteurss · fauteusr · fautteurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fautes" for "fauteurs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fot\ versus \fo.tœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fautes" or "fauteurs"?
"fautes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,233 in our French list, against #42,335 for "fauteurs". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fautes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fauteurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #193,878 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fautes" and "fauteurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faiseurs vs fauteurs". 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 #193,878 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