Which to use
“follies” is a noun and “follows” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,809
- “follies” frequency rank
- #1,634
- “follows” frequency rank
- 34443
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | follies | follows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of folly | third-person singular simple present indicative of follow |
Letter map: follies vs follows
Shared letters muted; letters that set follies and follows apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. follies (CVCCVVC) and follows (CVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for follies / follows
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: follies is anoun and followsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34443, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
follies is recorded at frequency rank #32,809, classified as anoun. follows is at rank #1,634, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɒl.əʊz/.
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 34443, this pair ranks #320,723 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of follies vs follows
Shared letters: flos. Private to "follies": ei. Private to "follows": w.
"follies" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "follows" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "follies" and "follows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "follies" or "follows" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "follies" and "follows". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "follies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "follows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #320,723 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "follies" and "follows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "follies vs forties". 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 #320,723 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.