Which to use
“fois” and “frise” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #104
- “fois” frequency rank
- #17,430
- “frise” frequency rank
- 17534
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fois | frise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom qui se joint à un adjectif numéral pour indiquer qu’un fait s’est produit ou s’est répété. | Partie de l’entablement qui est entre l’architrave et la corniche. |
Where the eye mixes fois and frise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses fois with frise
A purely visual mix-up. fois (\fwa\) and frise (\fʁiz\) 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 17534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fois is recorded at frequency rank #104, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwa\. frise is at rank #17,430, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁiz\.
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 17534, this pair ranks #382,685 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fois vs frise
Shared letters: fis. Private to "fois": o. Private to "frise": er.
"fois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "frise" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fois" for "frise" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fois" or "frise"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fois" and "frise" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #382,685 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fois" and "frise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frise vs fuse". 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 #382,685 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.