Which to use
“fermeté” is a noun and “fermez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,569
- “fermeté” frequency rank
- #12,783
- “fermez” frequency rank
- 25352
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fermeté | fermez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | État de ce qui est ferme, difficile à ébranler, de ce qui ne chancelle point. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de fermer. |
Where the eye mixes fermeté and fermez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fermeté runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against fermez's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fermeté vs fermez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fermeté is \fɛʁ.mə.te\ while fermez is \fɛʁ.me\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fermeté is recorded at frequency rank #12,569, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛʁ.mə.te\. fermez is at rank #12,783, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɛʁ.me\.
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 25352, this pair ranks #341,362 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fermeté vs fermez
Shared letters: efmr. Private to "fermeté": té. Private to "fermez": z.
"fermeté" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "fermez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fermez ← efrmez · femrez · feremz · fermezz · fermmez · fermze · ferrmez · ffermez
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fermeté" for "fermez" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fermeté" or "fermez"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fermeté" and "fermez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fermeté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fermez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #341,362 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fermeté" and "fermez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fermeté vs formaté". 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 #341,362 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.