Which to use
“fève” and “fèves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,822
- “fève” frequency rank
- #26,017
- “fèves” frequency rank
- 63839
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fève | fèves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Pluriel de fève. |
Same sound, different letters: fève vs fèves
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. fève runs 4 letters (CVCV) against fèves's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - fève and fèves
This is the hard kind. fève and fèves are pronounced identically (\fɛv\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “fève” sits inside “fèves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63839, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fève is recorded at frequency rank #37,822, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛv\. fèves is at rank #26,017, 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 63839, this pair ranks #79,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fève vs fèves
Shared letters: efvè. Private to "fève": -. Private to "fèves": s.
"fève" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "fèves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fève" for "fèves" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fève" or "fèves" show up more?
What to do next
"fève" and "fèves" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "fève" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fèves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fève" and "fèves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fève". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #79,961 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.