facevsfaireConfusable pair

Quick tell: face is a noun, faire is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“face” is a noun and “faire” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,395
“face” frequency rank
#34,275
“faire” frequency rank
35670
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature face faire
Definition parte do corpo humano onde se encontram os olhos, nariz e boca fazer

Letter map: face vs faire

Shared letters muted; letters that set face and faire apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. face runs 4 letters (CVCV) against faire's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
face
5 ch
faire

Role in the sentence - face and faire

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: face is anoun and faireaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35670, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

face is recorded at frequency rank #1,395, classified as anoun. faire is at rank #34,275, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɛʁ\.

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 35670, this pair ranks #31,347 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of face vs faire

Shared letters: aef. Private to "face": c. Private to "faire": ir.

"face" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "faire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • face ← afce · facce · faec · fcae · fface
  • faire ← afire · faier · fairre · farie · ffaire · fiare

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "face" and "faire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "face" is a noun and "faire" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "face" vs "faire" - which ranks higher?
"face" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,395 in our Portuguese list, against #34,275 for "faire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "face" and "faire".

  • Full dictionary entry for "face" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "faire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,347 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "face" and "faire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faia vs faire". 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 #31,347 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list