forgetvsforkedConfusable pair

Quick tell: forget is a verb, forked is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“forget” is a verb and “forked” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#924
“forget” frequency rank
#30,428
“forked” frequency rank
31352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature forget forked
Definition To lose remembrance of. That splits into two or more directions, or parts.

Where the eye mixes forget and forked

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
forget
6 ch
forked

Visual trap between forget and forked

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: forget is /fəˈɡɛt/ while forked is /fɔː(ɹ)kt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

forget is recorded at frequency rank #924, classified as averb, pronounced /fəˈɡɛt/. forked is at rank #30,428, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fɔː(ɹ)kt/.

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 31352, this pair ranks #346,872 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of forget vs forked

Shared letters: efor. Private to "forget": gt. Private to "forked": dk.

"forget" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "forked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • forgetfforget · fogret · foregt · forgett · forgget · forgte · forrget · froget
  • forkedfforked · fokred · forekd · forkde · forkedd · forkked · forrked · froked

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "forget" and "forked" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "forget" is a verb and "forked" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "forget" or "forked"?
"forget" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #924 in our English list, against #30,428 for "forked". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "forget" and "forked" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "forget" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "forked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #346,872 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "forget" and "forked" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flaked vs forked". 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 #346,872 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list