fogvsfonWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,768
“fog” frequency rank
#27,443
“fon” frequency rank
74211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fog fon
Definition Brouillard, brume. Langue parlée au Bénin et au Nigéria.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fog and fon apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
fog
3 ch
fon

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. fog (\fɔɡ\) and fon (\fɔ̃\) 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 a single letter - g in “fog” becomes n in “fon”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fog is recorded at frequency rank #46,768, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔɡ\. fon is at rank #27,443, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃\.

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 74211, this pair ranks #37,878 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fog vs fon

Shared letters: fo. Private to "fog": g. Private to "fon": n.

"fog" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fon" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequency comparison

fog#46,768
fon#27,443

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fog" and "fon" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fɔɡ\ versus \fɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fog" or "fon"?
"fon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,443 in our French list, against #46,768 for "fog". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering fog vs fon

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fog” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list