Which to use
“fo” and “foi” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,484
- “fo” frequency rank
- #1,478
- “foi” frequency rank
- 10962
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fo | foi |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Folio. | Croyance aux dogmes de la religion, en Dieu. |
Where the eye mixes fo and foi
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses fo with foi
A purely visual mix-up. fo (\fɔ.ljo\) 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 differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “fo” sits inside “foi”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10962, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fo is recorded at frequency rank #9,484, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ.ljo\. 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 10962, this pair ranks #410,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fo vs foi
Shared letters: fo. Private to "fo": -. Private to "foi": i.
"fo" · 2 letters · shape CV · "foi" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fo" and "foi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fo" or "foi" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fo" 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 #410,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fo" and "foi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fo". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #410,996 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.