fionvsfoyTell them apart

Quick tell: fion is a noun, foy is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fion” is a noun and “foy” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,064
“fion” frequency rank
#14,677
“foy” frequency rank
41741
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fion foy
Definition Coup, attaque physique ^([2]). rien, aucun problème.

Letter map: fion vs foy

Shared letters muted; letters that set fion and foy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
fion
3 ch
foy

Grammar separator: fion vs foy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fion is anoun and foyapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41741, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fion is recorded at frequency rank #27,064, classified as anoun, pronounced \fjɔ̃\. foy is at rank #14,677, tagged as apron.

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 41741, this pair ranks #230,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fion vs foy

Shared letters: fo. Private to "fion": in. Private to "foy": y.

"fion" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "foy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fionffion · fino · fionn · ifon

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fion" for "foy" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fion" is a noun and "foy" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fion" or "foy"?
"foy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,677 in our French list, against #27,064 for "fion". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "fion" vs "foy" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #230,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fion" and "foy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fion vs FIV". 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 #230,830 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