Which to use
“fle” is a verb and “foule” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,300
- “fle” frequency rank
- #2,616
- “foule” frequency rank
- 41916
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fle | foule |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dormir. | Action de fouler les draps. On dit plutôt foulage de nos jours. |
Where the eye mixes fle and foule
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fle runs 3 letters (CCV) against foule's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fle vs foule
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fle is \ˈfle\ while foule is \ful\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41916, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fle is recorded at frequency rank #39,300, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈfle\. foule is at rank #2,616, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ful\.
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 41916, this pair ranks #229,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fle vs foule
Shared letters: efl. Private to "fle": -. Private to "foule": ou.
"fle" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "foule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- foule ← ffoule · folue · fouel · foulle · fuole · ofule
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fle" for "foule" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fle" vs "foule" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fle" and "foule" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #229,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fle" and "foule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fle". 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 #229,592 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.