feindrevsfeinteTell them apart

Quick tell: feindre is a verb, feinte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“feindre” is a verb and “feinte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,810
“feindre” frequency rank
#22,856
“feinte” frequency rank
60666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feindre feinte
Definition Présenter une chose comme réelle en lui donnant une fausse apparence. Action de feindre.

Where the eye mixes feindre and feinte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
feindre
6 ch
feinte

Look-alike desk: feindre vs feinte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feindre is \fɛ̃dʁ\ while feinte is \fɛ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feindre is recorded at frequency rank #37,810, classified as averb, pronounced \fɛ̃dʁ\. feinte is at rank #22,856, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛ̃t\.

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 60666, this pair ranks #96,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of feindre vs feinte

Shared letters: efin. Private to "feindre": dr. Private to "feinte": t.

"feindre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV  ·  "feinte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feindreefindre · feidnre · feinddre · feinder · feindrre · feinndre · feinrde · fenidre
  • feinteefinte · feinet · feinnte · feintte · feitne · fenite · ffeinte · fiente

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feindre" and "feinte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feindre" is a verb and "feinte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "feindre" or "feinte"?
"feinte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,856 in our French list, against #37,810 for "feindre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "feindre" and "feinte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feindre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feinte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #96,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feindre" and "feinte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feindre vs fendue". 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 #96,430 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