Which to use
“fraîche” is an adjective and “friches” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,397
- “fraîche” frequency rank
- #39,308
- “friches” frequency rank
- 45705
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fraîche | friches |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de frais. | Pluriel de friche. |
Where the eye mixes fraîche and friches
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fraîche (CCVVCCV) and friches (CCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: fraîche vs friches
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fraîche is \fʁɛʃ\ while friches is \fʁiʃ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45705, 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\. friches is at rank #39,308, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁiʃ\.
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 45705, this pair ranks #200,663 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fraîche vs friches
Shared letters: cefhr. Private to "fraîche": aî. Private to "friches": is.
"fraîche" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV · "friches" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- friches ← ffriches · firches · frcihes · fricches · fricehs · frichess · frichhes · frichse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fraîche" for "friches" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fraîche" or "friches" show up more?
Useful next steps
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 "friches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #200,663 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fraîche" and "friches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fichus vs friches". 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 #200,663 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.