Which to use
“feutre” is a noun and “foute” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,591
- “feutre” frequency rank
- #24,598
- “foute” frequency rank
- 49189
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | feutre | foute |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de foutre. |
Where the eye mixes feutre and foute
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. feutre runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against foute's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between feutre and foute
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feutre is \føtʁ\ while foute is \fut\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49189, 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\. foute is at rank #24,598, tagged as averb, pronounced \fut\.
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 49189, this pair ranks #172,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of feutre vs foute
Shared letters: eftu. Private to "feutre": r. Private to "foute": o.
"feutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "foute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "feutre" for "foute" ever safe?
Frequency check: "feutre" vs "foute" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "feutre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "feutre" and "foute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouets vs foute". 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 #172,713 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.