ma foi
\ma fwa\
The verdict
“ma foi” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Façon de parler dont on se sert lorsqu’on affirme, ou lorsqu’on reconnait, lorsqu’on avoue quelque chose.
Corpus desk
Index FR-ma-foi · ma foi · French
ma foi · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ma foi |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | \ma fwa\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « ma foi » en français
Rare enough to double-check
ma foi is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection, transcribed \ma fwa\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
ma foi has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is ma foi, spelled M-A- -F-O-I.
Definition
- 1Façon de parler dont on se sert lorsqu’on affirme, ou lorsqu’on reconnait, lorsqu’on avoue quelque chose.
- 2Formule utilisée pour exprimer une certaine indifférence.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ma foi appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
– Allons donc ! Vous croyez ? – Ma foi, oui, je le crois.
— Nom d’un chien ! – marmonna-t-il. – Je n’ai aucune sympathie pour les cadavres… J’aimerais mieux, ma foi, que l’individu fût vivant.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.