Which to use
“fête” and “fire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #943
- “fête” frequency rank
- #10,874
- “fire” frequency rank
- 11817
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fête | fire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jour consacré particulièrement à des actes de religion, cérémonies religieuses par lesquelles on célèbre ce jour. | Feu (le phénomène en général). |
Where the eye mixes fête and fire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between fête and fire
A purely visual mix-up. fête (\fɛt\) and fire (\ˈfaɪ.ɚ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11817, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fête is recorded at frequency rank #943, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛt\. fire is at rank #10,874, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈfaɪ.ɚ\.
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 11817, this pair ranks #407,677 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fête vs fire
Shared letters: ef. Private to "fête": tê. Private to "fire": ir.
"fête" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "fire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fire ← ffire · firre · frie · ifre
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fête" for "fire" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fête" vs "fire" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fête" and "fire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fête" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,677 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fête" and "fire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fire". 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 #407,677 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.