ferméevsformeTell them apart

Quick tell: fermée is a adjective, forme is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fermée” is an adjective and “forme” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,758
“fermée” frequency rank
#371
“forme” frequency rank
5129
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fermée forme
Definition Féminin singulier de fermé. Aspect extérieur, configuration caractéristique ou particulière d’une chose.

Where the eye mixes fermée and forme

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
fermée
5 ch
forme

Why the eye confuses fermée with forme

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fermée is \fɛʁ.me\ while forme is \fɔʁm\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5129, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fermée is recorded at frequency rank #4,758, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɛʁ.me\. forme is at rank #371, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔʁm\.

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 5129, this pair ranks #429,814 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fermée vs forme

Shared letters: efmr. Private to "fermée": é. Private to "forme": o.

"fermée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "forme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • formefforme · fomre · forem · formme · forrme · frome · ofrme

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fermée" and "forme" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fermée" is an adjective and "forme" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fermée" vs "forme" - which ranks higher?
"forme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #371 in our French list, against #4,758 for "fermée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "fermée" and "forme" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fermée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "forme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #429,814 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fermée" and "forme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "formaté vs forme". 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 #429,814 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