Which to use
“fraîche” and “franches” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,397
- “fraîche” frequency rank
- #22,866
- “franches” frequency rank
- 29263
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fraîche | franches |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de frais. | Féminin pluriel de franc (dans le sens de « libre, vrai, sincère, exempt de taxes, etc. »). |
Where the eye mixes fraîche and franches
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. fraîche runs 7 letters (CCVVCCV) against franches's 8 (CCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fraîche with franches
A purely visual mix-up. fraîche (\fʁɛʃ\) and franches (\fʁɑ̃ʃ\) 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 29263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fraîche is recorded at frequency rank #6,397, classified as anadj, pronounced \fʁɛʃ\. franches is at rank #22,866, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fʁɑ̃ʃ\.
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 29263, this pair ranks #317,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fraîche vs franches
Shared letters: acefhr. Private to "fraîche": î. Private to "franches": ns.
"fraîche" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV · "franches" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- franches ← farnches · ffranches · fracnhes · francches · francehs · franchess · franchhes · franchse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fraîche" and "franches" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fraîche" vs "franches" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fraîche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "franches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #317,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fraîche" and "franches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "franches vs francos". 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 #317,756 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.