faire vs fase, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#34,275
“faire” frequency rank: #868
“fase” frequency rank: 35143
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	faire	fase
Definition	fazer	cada uma das aparências que a Lua nos apresenta

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set faire and fase apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

faire

4 ch

fase

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: faire is \fɛʁ\ while fase is /ˈfa.zɨ/. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35143, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faire is recorded at frequency rank #34,275, classified as averb, pronounced \fɛʁ\. fase is at rank #868, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfa.zɨ/.

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 35143, this pair ranks #31,948 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of faire vs fase

Shared letters: aef. Private to "faire": ir. Private to "fase": s.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

faire ← afire · faier · fairre · farie · ffaire · fiare
fase ← afse · faes · fasse · ffase · fsae

Frequency comparison

faire#34,275

fase#868

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "faire" and "fase" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "faire" is a verb and "fase" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "faire" or "fase"?

"fase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #868 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.

Remembering faire vs fase

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “faire”; for a noun, it's “fase”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “faire” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable