flevsfusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,300
“fle” frequency rank
#19,029
“fus” frequency rank
58329
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fle fus
Definition Dormir. Première personne du singulier du passé simple de être.

Where the eye mixes fle and fus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
fle
3 ch
fus

Visual trap between fle and fus

A purely visual mix-up. fle (\ˈfle\) and fus (\fy\) 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 58329, 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\. fus is at rank #19,029, tagged as averb, pronounced \fy\.

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 58329, this pair ranks #109,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fle vs fus

Shared letters: f. Private to "fle": el. Private to "fus": su.

"fle" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "fus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fle" and "fus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈfle\ versus \fy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fle" or "fus"?
"fus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,029 in our French list, against #39,300 for "fle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "fle" and "fus" 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 "fus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #109,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fle" and "fus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fle". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #109,713 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