feelvsfleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,426
“feel” frequency rank
#39,300
“fle” frequency rank
56726
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feel fle
Definition Penser que, être d’avis, estimer. Dormir.

Where the eye mixes feel and fle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
feel
3 ch
fle

Why the eye confuses feel with fle

A purely visual mix-up. feel (\fiːl\) and fle (\ˈfle\) 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 56726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feel is recorded at frequency rank #17,426, classified as averb, pronounced \fiːl\. fle is at rank #39,300, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈfle\.

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 56726, this pair ranks #119,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feel vs fle

Shared letters: efl. Private to "feel": -. Private to "fle": -.

"feel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "fle" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feelefel · feell · fel · fele · ffeel

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feel" and "fle" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fiːl\ versus \ˈfle\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "feel" or "fle" show up more?
"feel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,426 in our French list, against #39,300 for "fle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "feel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feel" and "fle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fle". 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 #119,291 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