How Are You Faring or Fairing? (Correct Spelling)

You must have heard “how are you faring?” before. It is easy to understand that line in spoken English, but do you know how to write it? Is it “how are you faring?” or “how are you fairing?” If you’ve encountered this problem, read on, because all answers are ahead.

How Are You Faring or Fairing?

“How are you faring”, is used to ask someone about progress, success, or being treated in a certain way, or be in a particular condition. Thus, “how are you faring” is perfectly correct. “Fairing”, is a word related to aerodynamics, therefore, “how are you fairing” is incorrect.

How Are You Faring or Fairing

Since “faring” and “fairing” are spelled and said very similarly, it is easy to mistake one word for another. That being said, their meanings are completely different, so they can’t be used as synonyms or interchanged. The correct way of asking how someone is doing is “how are you faring?”.

Faring Well or Fairing Well?

“Faring”, is an expression used to ask about progress, moving forward, or being in a specific state. Therefore asking if someone is “faring well” is perfectly correct. “Fairing” on the other hand, is a word from the engineering/aerodynamics environments; therefore the expression “fairing well” is incorrect.

Let’s see some examples of “faring well” in a sentence:

  • I know you’ve recently been promoted, I really hope you’re faring well, you deserve it so much.
  • Are you faring well? I heard your new position is very demanding.

Faring

The word “fare”, when used as a verb, means to make progress, succeed, be treated a certain way, or be in a particular condition. So, asking someone “how are you faring” is perfectly correct; it is mostly used when someone has made progress, been promoted, or succeeded.

When checking the Cambridge Dictionary about the word “fare” we found out that it can be used as a noun and as a verb. When used as a verb, it can be used to ask how someone is in the UK as well as in the USA.

Let’s see some examples of how to use “faring” in a sentence:

  1. How are you faring in your new position? I heard the boss is giving you a lot to do lately.
  2. With the new tax laws, I believe that low-income families will be faring much better soon.
  3. How are the farmers faring this season? I heard crops are great.
  4. She was faring great in her new position until she had to stay at home because of bad flu.
  5. How are you faring, dad? Your new book is your best work so far.

Fairing

A “fairing” is an additional structure or part added to a motorcycle, car, or airplane to reduce drag. This is a word usually used in the world of aerodynamics and engineering since reducing drag with fairings makes vehicles go faster.

We went to check with the Cambridge Dictionary to see what the meaning of “fairing” is but couldn’t find it in the dictionary’s database. Thus, we checked on the prestigious Merriam-Webster dictionary and found that the word fairing can mean either a present bought at a fair or a part of an airplane that produces a smooth outline reducing drag and augmenting speed.

Let’s see how to use “fairing” in a sentence through some examples:

  1. I heard the new Boeing model features an incredible new fairing design making it even faster.
  2. The GP Moto world is always looking for a way to enhance the fairings and make the vehicles go faster.
  3. I wasn’t counting on my new car to have such modern fairing, it is faster than anything I’ve ever driven before.
  4. The fairing on this airplane not only makes it go faster; it uses less gas too.
  5. I have been designing the new fairing on the F1 car with my team and I’m confident we can win the race.

Which Is Used the Most?

To check on these words’ popularity levels, we used the Google Ngram Viewer and found out that “fairing” enjoyed moderate popularity between 1940 and 1990 but is today almost at its all-time lowest level. “Faring”, on the other hand, always enjoyed a high popularity level. Furthermore, it is at its all-time high nowadays.

how are you faring or fairing usage

Final Thoughts

We use “how are you faring”, to ask about progress, success, or being treated in a specific way. The word “fairing”, on the other hand, means to reduce drag to increase speed. Thus, asking someone “how are you fairing” is not correct. It can be a misspelling or typo.