feutrevsfourréWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: feutre is a noun, fourré is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#24,591
“feutre” frequency rank
#24,597
“fourré” frequency rank
49188
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feutre fourré
Definition Étoffe non tissée constituée de poils ou de fibres de laine agglomérées ensemble par soufflage, et mise sous pression avec ébouillantage dans la forme, ou, en fabrication traditionnelle mongole par mouillage et foulage. Vêtu de fourrure.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set feutre and fourré apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
feutre
6 ch
fourré

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feutre is \føtʁ\ while fourré is \fu.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feutre is recorded at frequency rank #24,591, classified as anoun, pronounced \føtʁ\. fourré is at rank #24,597, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fu.ʁe\.

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 49188, this pair ranks #172,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feutre vs fourré

Shared letters: fru. Private to "feutre": et. Private to "fourré": .

"feutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "fourré" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feutreefutre · feture · feurte · feuter · feutrre · feuttre · ffeutre · fuetre

Frequency comparison

feutre#24,591
fourré#24,597

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feutre" and "fourré" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feutre" is a noun and "fourré" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "feutre" or "fourré"?
"feutre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,591 in our French list, against #24,597 for "fourré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering feutre vs fourré

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “feutre”; for an adjective, it's “fourré”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “feutre” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list