Which to use
“félin” is an adjective and “folio” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,819
- “félin” frequency rank
- #19,022
- “folio” frequency rank
- 46841
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | félin | folio |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui se rapporte au chat ou aux félidés. | Feuillet, en parlant de registres, de manuscrits, etc., numérotés par feuillets, et non par pages. |
Where the eye mixes félin and folio
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. félin (CVCVC) and folio (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses félin with folio
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: félin is \fe.lɛ̃\ while folio is \fɔ.ljo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
félin is recorded at frequency rank #27,819, classified as anadj, pronounced \fe.lɛ̃\. folio is at rank #19,022, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ.ljo\.
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 46841, this pair ranks #191,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of félin vs folio
Shared letters: fil. Private to "félin": né. Private to "folio": o.
"félin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "folio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- folio ← ffolio · floio · foilo · follio · foloi · oflio
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "félin" for "folio" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "félin" or "folio" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "félin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "folio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "félin" and "folio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Feld vs félin". 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 #191,643 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.