Which to use
“folk” is a noun and “fou” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,947
- “folk” frequency rank
- #48,244
- “fou” frequency rank
- 53191
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | folk | fou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A people; a tribe or nation; the inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants. | Drunk. |
Letter map: folk vs fou
Shared letters muted; letters that set folk and fou apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: folk is anoun and fouanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
folk is recorded at frequency rank #4,947, classified as anoun, pronounced /fəʊk/. fou is at rank #48,244, tagged as anadj.
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 53191, this pair ranks #151,037 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of folk vs fou
Shared letters: fo. Private to "folk": kl. Private to "fou": u.
"folk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fou" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- folk ← ffolk · flok · fokl · folkk · follk · oflk