fèvesvsfidesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“fèves” and “fides” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#26,017
“fèves” frequency rank
#38,296
“fides” frequency rank
64313
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fèves fides
Definition Pluriel de fève. Foi, croyance, confiance, créance, crédit.

Letter map: fèves vs fides

Shared letters muted; letters that set fèves and fides apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. fèves and fides follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
fèves
5 ch
fides

Corpus notes: fèves and fides

fèves and fides are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64313, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fèves is recorded at frequency rank #26,017, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛv\. fides is at rank #38,296, tagged as anoun.

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 64313, this pair ranks #77,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fèves vs fides

Shared letters: efs. Private to "fèves": vè. Private to "fides": di.

"fèves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "fides" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fides ← fdies · ffides · fiddes · fidess · fidse · fieds · ifdes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fèves" for "fides" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "fèves" vs "fides" - which ranks higher?
"fèves" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,017 in our French list, against #38,296 for "fides". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "fèves" and "fides". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fèves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fides" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #77,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fèves" and "fides" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fides vs filez". 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 #77,662 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list