Which to use
“fey” and “free” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,760
- “fey” frequency rank
- #3,537
- “free” frequency rank
- 50297
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fey | free |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cône. | Teuf, fête gratuite. |
Where the eye mixes fey and free
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fey runs 3 letters (CVV) against free's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fey vs free
A purely visual mix-up. fey (\fɛj\) and free (\fʁi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fey is recorded at frequency rank #46,760, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛj\. free is at rank #3,537, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁi\.
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 50297, this pair ranks #163,778 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fey vs free
Shared letters: ef. Private to "fey": y. Private to "free": r.
"fey" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "free" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- free ← fere · ffree · fre · frree · rfee
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fey" for "free" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fey" or "free" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fey" and "free" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "free" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #163,778 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fey" and "free" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fey". 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 #163,778 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.