Which to use
“fong” is a noun and “fou” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,923
- “fong” frequency rank
- #48,244
- “fou” frequency rank
- 77167
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fong | fou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A kick. | Drunk. |
Letter map: fong vs fou
Shared letters muted; letters that set fong and fou apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. fong runs 4 letters (CVCC) against fou's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - fong and fou
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fong is anoun and fouanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fong is recorded at frequency rank #28,923, classified as anoun. 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 77167, this pair ranks #28,004 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fong vs fou
Shared letters: fo. Private to "fong": gn. Private to "fou": u.
"fong" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fou" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fong ← ffong · fnog · fogn · fongg · fonng · ofng
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fong" for "fou" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fong" vs "fou" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "fong" and "fou". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "fong" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,004 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fong" and "fou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FOMO vs fou". 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 #28,004 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.