Which to use
“fête” is a noun and “fixe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #943
- “fête” frequency rank
- #2,615
- “fixe” frequency rank
- 3558
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fête | fixe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jour consacré particulièrement à des actes de religion, cérémonies religieuses par lesquelles on célèbre ce jour. | Immobile. |
Where the eye mixes fête and fixe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fête vs fixe
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fête is \fɛt\ while fixe is \fiks\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3558, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fête is recorded at frequency rank #943, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛt\. fixe is at rank #2,615, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fiks\.
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 3558, this pair ranks #433,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fête vs fixe
Shared letters: ef. Private to "fête": tê. Private to "fixe": ix.
"fête" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "fixe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fixe ← ffixe · fiex · fixxe · fxie · ifxe
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fête" for "fixe" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fête" vs "fixe" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fête" and "fixe" 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 "fixe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fête" and "fixe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fixe". 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 #433,748 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.