feyvsfogTell them apart

Which to use

“fey” and “fog” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,760
“fey” frequency rank
#46,768
“fog” frequency rank
93528
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fey fog
Definition Cône. Brouillard, brume.

Where the eye mixes fey and fog

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. fey (CVV) and fog (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
fey
3 ch
fog

Visual trap between fey and fog

A purely visual mix-up. fey (\fɛj\) and fog (\fɔɡ\) 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 93528, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fey is recorded at frequency rank #46,760, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛj\. fog is at rank #46,768, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔɡ\.

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 93528, this pair ranks #2,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fey vs fog

Shared letters: f. Private to "fey": ey. Private to "fog": go.

"fey" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "fog" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fey" and "fog" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fɛj\ versus \fɔɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fey" or "fog"?
"fey" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,760 in our French list, against #46,768 for "fog". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fog" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fey" and "fog" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fog". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,214 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