foievsfoiledWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#42,645
“foie” frequency rank
#29,659
“foiled” frequency rank
72304
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foie foiled
Definition Ellipsis of foie gras. simple past and past participle of foil

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set foie and foiled apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
foie
6 ch
foiled

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foie is anoun and foiledaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foie is recorded at frequency rank #42,645, classified as anoun. foiled is at rank #29,659, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɔɪld/.

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 72304, this pair ranks #43,503 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of foie vs foiled

Shared letters: efio. Private to "foie": -. Private to "foiled": dl.

"foie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "foiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foieffoie · fioe · foei · ofie
  • foiledffoiled · fioled · foield · foilde · foiledd · foilled · folied · ofiled

Frequency comparison

foie#42,645
foiled#29,659

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "foie" and "foiled" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foie" is a noun and "foiled" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "foie" or "foiled"?
"foiled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,659 in our English list, against #42,645 for "foie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering foie vs foiled

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list