Which to use
“faure” and “foule” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,877
- “faure” frequency rank
- #2,616
- “foule” frequency rank
- 18493
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faure | foule |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forgeron. | Action de fouler les draps. On dit plutôt foulage de nos jours. |
Where the eye mixes faure and foule
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between faure and foule
A purely visual mix-up. faure (\ˈfawre\) and foule (\ful\) 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 18493, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faure is recorded at frequency rank #15,877, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈfawre\. foule is at rank #2,616, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ful\.
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 18493, this pair ranks #378,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faure vs foule
Shared letters: efu. Private to "faure": ar. Private to "foule": lo.
"faure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "foule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "faure" for "foule" ever safe?
Which is more common, "faure" or "foule"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "faure" and "foule" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "faure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #378,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faure" and "foule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fange vs faure". 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 #378,042 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.