Which to use
“franches” is an adjective and “friches” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,866
- “franches” frequency rank
- #39,308
- “friches” frequency rank
- 62174
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | franches | friches |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de franc (dans le sens de « libre, vrai, sincère, exempt de taxes, etc. »). | Pluriel de friche. |
Where the eye mixes franches and friches
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. franches runs 8 letters (CCVCCCVC) against friches's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses franches with friches
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: franches is \fʁɑ̃ʃ\ while friches is \fʁiʃ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
franches is recorded at frequency rank #22,866, classified as anadj, pronounced \fʁɑ̃ʃ\. 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 62174, this pair ranks #88,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of franches vs friches
Shared letters: cefhrs. Private to "franches": an. Private to "friches": i.
"franches" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC · "friches" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "franches" and "friches" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "franches" vs "friches" - 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 "franches" 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 #88,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "franches" 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 #88,478 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.