Which to use
“feed” is a verb and “fête” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,809
- “feed” frequency rank
- #943
- “fête” frequency rank
- 28752
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | feed | fête |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nourrir, alimenter. | Jour consacré particulièrement à des actes de religion, cérémonies religieuses par lesquelles on célèbre ce jour. |
Where the eye mixes feed and fête
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: feed vs fête
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feed is \fiːd\ while fête is \fɛt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
feed is recorded at frequency rank #27,809, classified as averb, pronounced \fiːd\. fête is at rank #943, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛt\.
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 28752, this pair ranks #320,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of feed vs fête
Shared letters: ef. Private to "feed": d. Private to "fête": tê.
"feed" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fête" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- feed ← efed · fede · feedd · ffeed
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "feed" and "fête" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "feed" or "fête" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "feed" and "fête" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "feed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fête" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #320,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "feed" and "fête" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs feed". 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 #320,924 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.