fèvesvsfigésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fèves is a noun, figés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fèves” is a noun and “figés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,017
“fèves” frequency rank
#42,338
“figés” frequency rank
68355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fèves figés
Definition Pluriel de fève. Masculin pluriel de figé.

Where the eye mixes fèves and figés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fèves and figés 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
figés

Look-alike desk: fèves vs figés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fèves is \fɛv\ while figés is \fi.ʒe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 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 68355, 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\. figés is at rank #42,338, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fi.ʒe\.

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 68355, this pair ranks #59,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fèves vs figés

Shared letters: fs. Private to "fèves": evè. Private to "figés": gié.

"fèves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "figés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fèves" and "figés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fèves" is a noun and "figés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fèves" vs "figés" - which ranks higher?
"fèves" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,017 in our French list, against #42,338 for "figés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "fèves" and "figés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fèves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "figés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fèves" and "figés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "figés vs Finger". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #59,526 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