fouvsfutConfusable pair

Quick tell: fou is a adjective, fut is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fou” is an adjective and “fut” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,244
“fou” frequency rank
#44,798
“fut” frequency rank
93042
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fou fut
Definition Drunk. Alternative form of 'sfoot.

Letter map: fou vs fut

Shared letters muted; letters that set fou and fut apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. fou (CVV) and fut (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
fou
3 ch
fut

Grammar separator: fou vs fut

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fou is anadjective and futanintj. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fou is recorded at frequency rank #48,244, classified as anadj. fut is at rank #44,798, tagged as anintj.

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 93042, this pair ranks #2,181 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fou vs fut

Shared letters: fu. Private to "fou": o. Private to "fut": t.

"fou" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "fut" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fou" for "fut" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fou" is an adjective and "fut" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fou" or "fut"?
"fut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,798 in our English list, against #48,244 for "fou". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "fou" and "fut". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,181 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fou" and "fut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FOMO vs fou". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,181 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