Which to use
“flotte” is a noun and “foute” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,920
- “flotte” frequency rank
- #24,598
- “foute” frequency rank
- 28518
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flotte | foute |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ensemble de navires, marine. | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de foutre. |
Where the eye mixes flotte and foute
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses flotte with foute
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: flotte is \flɔt\ while foute is \fut\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28518, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flotte is recorded at frequency rank #3,920, classified as anoun, pronounced \flɔt\. foute is at rank #24,598, tagged as averb, pronounced \fut\.
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 28518, this pair ranks #322,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of flotte vs foute
Shared letters: efot. Private to "flotte": l. Private to "foute": u.
"flotte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "foute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "flotte" for "foute" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "flotte" or "foute" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "flotte" and "foute" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "flotte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #322,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "flotte" and "foute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouets vs foute". 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 #322,287 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.