façonsvsfonsTell them apart

Which to use

“façons” and “fons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,422
“façons” frequency rank
#43,445
“fons” frequency rank
47867
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature façons fons
Definition Pluriel de façon. Fonds (patrimoine).

Letter map: façons vs fons

Shared letters muted; letters that set façons and fons apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. façons runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against fons's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
façons
4 ch
fons

Corpus notes: façons and fons

façons and fons are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

façons is recorded at frequency rank #4,422, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.sɔ̃\. fons is at rank #43,445, tagged as anoun.

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 47867, this pair ranks #183,519 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of façons vs fons

Shared letters: fnos. Private to "façons": aç. Private to "fons": -.

"façons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "fons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fons ← ffons · fnos · fonns · fonss · fosn · ofns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "façons" for "fons" ever safe?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "façons" vs "fons" - which ranks higher?
"façons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,422 in our French list, against #43,445 for "fons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "façons" and "fons". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "façons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #183,519 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "façons" and "fons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foins vs fons". 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 #183,519 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list