Which to use
“frire” is a verb and “frites” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,956
- “frire” frequency rank
- #7,697
- “frites” frequency rank
- 43653
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | frire | frites |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Faire cuire dans une poêle avec du beurre, du saindoux ou de l’huile. | Féminin pluriel de frit. |
Where the eye mixes frire and frites
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between frire and frites
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: frire is \fʁiʁ\ while frites is \fʁit\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43653, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
frire is recorded at frequency rank #35,956, classified as averb, pronounced \fʁiʁ\. frites is at rank #7,697, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fʁit\.
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 43653, this pair ranks #216,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of frire vs frites
Shared letters: efir. Private to "frire": -. Private to "frites": st.
"frire" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "frites" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "frire" and "frites" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "frire" or "frites" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "frire" and "frites" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "frire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #216,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "frire" and "frites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frire vs frises". 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 #216,410 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.