Which to use
“foies” and “foires” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,901
- “foies” frequency rank
- #16,134
- “foires” frequency rank
- 64035
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foies | foires |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de foie. | Pluriel de foire. |
Where the eye mixes foies and foires
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. foies runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against foires's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses foies with foires
A purely visual mix-up. foies (\fwa\) and foires (\fwaʁ\) 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 64035, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foies is recorded at frequency rank #47,901, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwa\. foires is at rank #16,134, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwaʁ\.
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 64035, this pair ranks #79,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foies vs foires
Shared letters: efios. Private to "foies": -. Private to "foires": r.
"foies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "foires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foies" for "foires" ever safe?
Frequency check: "foies" vs "foires" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "foies" and "foires" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "foies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foies" and "foires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs fouets". 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 #79,004 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.