fogvsfondConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#46,768
“fog” frequency rank
#518
“fond” frequency rank
47286
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fog fond
Definition Brouillard, brume. Endroit le plus bas, le plus intérieur d’une chose creuse.

Where the eye mixes fog and fond

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fog runs 3 letters (CVC) against fond's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
fog
4 ch
fond

Visual trap between fog and fond

A purely visual mix-up. fog (\fɔɡ\) and fond (\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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47286, 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\. fond is at rank #518, 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 47286, this pair ranks #188,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fog vs fond

Shared letters: fo. Private to "fog": g. Private to "fond": dn.

"fog" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fond ← ffond · fnod · fodn · fondd · fonnd · ofnd

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fog" and "fond" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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 "fond"?
"fond" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #518 in our French list, against #46,768 for "fog". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fog" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fond" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fog" and "fond" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fog". 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 #188,136 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