Which to use
“fève” is a noun and “frêle” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,822
- “fève” frequency rank
- #31,505
- “frêle” frequency rank
- 69327
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fève | frêle |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Qui a peu de solidité, de résistance. |
Where the eye mixes fève and frêle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fève runs 4 letters (CVCV) against frêle's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fève vs frêle
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fève is \fɛv\ while frêle is \fʁɛl\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69327, 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\. frêle is at rank #31,505, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fʁɛl\.
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 69327, this pair ranks #55,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fève vs frêle
Shared letters: ef. Private to "fève": vè. Private to "frêle": lrê.
"fève" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "frêle" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fève" and "frêle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "fève" or "frêle"?
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 "fève" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frêle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #55,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fève" and "frêle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fève". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #55,567 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.