Which to use
“fei” and “frein” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,027
- “fei” frequency rank
- #7,569
- “frein” frequency rank
- 38596
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fei | frein |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante de foi | Dispositif destiné à modérer la vitesse d’un mécanisme, à enrayer les roues d’un véhicule. |
Where the eye mixes fei and frein
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fei runs 3 letters (CVV) against frein's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fei and frein
A purely visual mix-up. fei (\fei̯\) and frein (\fʁɛ̃\) 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 38596, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fei is recorded at frequency rank #31,027, classified as anoun, pronounced \fei̯\. frein is at rank #7,569, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁɛ̃\.
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 38596, this pair ranks #254,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fei vs frein
Shared letters: efi. Private to "fei": -. Private to "frein": nr.
"fei" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "frein" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- frein ← ferin · ffrein · freinn · freni · frien · frrein · rfein
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fei" and "frein" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fei" vs "frein" - 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 "fei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frein" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #254,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fei" and "frein" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fei". 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 #254,173 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.