fochvsforWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,562
“foch” frequency rank
#2,077
“for” frequency rank
30639
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foch for
Definition Forme mutée de moch par lénition. Lieu où les tribunaux sont compétents pour exercer leur juridiction.

Where the eye mixes foch and for

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
foch
3 ch
for

Why the eye confuses foch with for

A purely visual mix-up. foch (\voːχ\) and for (\fɔʁ\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foch is recorded at frequency rank #28,562, classified as anoun, pronounced \voːχ\. for is at rank #2,077, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔʁ\.

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 30639, this pair ranks #308,933 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foch vs for

Shared letters: fo. Private to "foch": ch. Private to "for": r.

"foch" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "for" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fochfcoh · ffoch · focch · fochh · fohc · ofch

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "foch" for "for" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\voːχ\ versus \fɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "foch" vs "for" - which ranks higher?
"for" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,077 in our French list, against #28,562 for "foch". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "foch" and "for" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "for" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #308,933 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foch" and "for" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foch vs fork". 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 #308,933 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