fengvsfèveTell them apart

Which to use

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

#23,868
“feng” frequency rank
#37,822
“fève” frequency rank
61690
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feng fève
Definition Nom de la lettre ʩ utilisée dans les extensions de l’alphabet phonétique international pour représenter une consonne vélo-pharyngeale fricative. Nom vernaculaire de Vicia faba, plante herbacées annuelle de la famille des Fabacées (Fabaceae, au port érigé, pouvant atteindre 2 mètre de haut et que l’on cultive pour sa graine comestible.

Where the eye mixes feng and fève

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. feng (CVCC) and fève (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
feng
4 ch
fève

Why the eye confuses feng with fève

A purely visual mix-up. feng (\fɛŋ\) and fève (\fɛv\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61690, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feng is recorded at frequency rank #23,868, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛŋ\. fève is at rank #37,822, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛv\.

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 61690, this pair ranks #90,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of feng vs fève

Shared letters: ef. Private to "feng": gn. Private to "fève": vè.

"feng" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fève" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feng ← efng · fegn · fengg · fenng · ffeng · fneg

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "feng" and "fève" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fɛŋ\ versus \fɛv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "feng" vs "fève" - which ranks higher?
"feng" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,868 in our French list, against #37,822 for "fève". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feng" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fève" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feng" and "fève" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fève". 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 #90,968 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