fig vs foi, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#16,879
“fig” frequency rank: #1,478
“foi” frequency rank: 18357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fig	foi
Definition	Figurine, pion représentant un personnage.	Croyance aux dogmes de la religion, en Dieu.

Where the eye mixes fig and foi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

fig

3 ch

foi

Look-alike desk: fig vs foi

A purely visual mix-up. fig (\fiɡ\) and foi (\fwa\) 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 18357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fig is recorded at frequency rank #16,879, classified as anoun, pronounced \fiɡ\. foi is at rank #1,478, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwa\.

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 18357, this pair ranks #378,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fig vs foi

Shared letters: fi. Private to "fig": g. Private to "foi": o.

"fig" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "foi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fig" and "foi" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (\fiɡ\ versus \fwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "fig" or "foi"?

"foi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,478 in our French list, against #16,879 for "fig". 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 "fig" and "foi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "fig" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "foi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #378,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"fig" and "foi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fig". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #378,742 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.