fentesvsfeutresTell them apart

Which to use

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

#33,261
“fentes” frequency rank
#42,877
“feutres” frequency rank
76138
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fentes feutres
Definition Pluriel de fente. Pluriel de feutre.

Where the eye mixes fentes and feutres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fentes runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against feutres's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fentes
7 ch
feutres

Why the eye confuses fentes with feutres

A purely visual mix-up. fentes (\fɑ̃t\) and feutres (\føtʁ\) 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 76138, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fentes is recorded at frequency rank #33,261, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɑ̃t\. feutres is at rank #42,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced \føtʁ\.

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 76138, this pair ranks #31,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fentes vs feutres

Shared letters: efst. Private to "fentes": n. Private to "feutres": ru.

"fentes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "feutres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fentesefntes · fenets · fenntes · fentess · fentse · fenttes · fetnes · ffentes
  • feutresefutres · fetures · feurtes · feuters · feutress · feutrres · feutrse · feuttres

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fentes" for "feutres" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fɑ̃t\ versus \føtʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "fentes" or "feutres" show up more?
"fentes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,261 in our French list, against #42,877 for "feutres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fentes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feutres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fentes" and "feutres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fentes vs fontes". 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 #31,996 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