Which to use
“forget” and “fought” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #924
- “forget” frequency rank
- #3,060
- “fought” frequency rank
- 3984
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | forget | fought |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To lose remembrance of. | simple past and past participle of fight |
Where the eye mixes forget and fought
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. forget (CVCCVC) and fought (CVVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between forget and fought
A purely visual mix-up. forget (/fəˈɡɛt/) and fought (/fɔːt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
forget is recorded at frequency rank #924, classified as averb, pronounced /fəˈɡɛt/. fought is at rank #3,060, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɔːt/.
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 3984, this pair ranks #520,366 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of forget vs fought
Shared letters: fgot. Private to "forget": er. Private to "fought": hu.
"forget" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fought" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "forget" for "fought" ever safe?
Which is more common, "forget" or "fought"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "forget" and "fought" 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 "fought" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #520,366 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "forget" and "fought" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fidget vs forget". 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 #520,366 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.