Which to use
“foie” and “folies” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,041
- “foie” frequency rank
- #15,382
- “folies” frequency rank
- 20423
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foie | folies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Organe présent chez l’être humain et chez la plupart des vertébrés, produisant la bile. Il sert, entre autres, à régler le métabolisme des glucides. | Pluriel de folie. |
Where the eye mixes foie and folies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. foie runs 4 letters (CVVV) against folies's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: foie vs folies
A purely visual mix-up. foie (\fwa\) and folies (\fɔ.li\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foie is recorded at frequency rank #5,041, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwa\. folies is at rank #15,382, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ.li\.
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 20423, this pair ranks #368,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of foie vs folies
Shared letters: efio. Private to "foie": -. Private to "folies": ls.
"foie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "folies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foie" for "folies" ever safe?
Frequency check: "foie" vs "folies" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "foie" and "folies" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "foie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "folies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #368,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foie" and "folies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foins vs folies". 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 #368,353 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.