Which to use
“foies” is a noun and “fortes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,901
- “foies” frequency rank
- #2,927
- “fortes” frequency rank
- 50828
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foies | fortes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de foie. | Féminin pluriel de fort. |
Where the eye mixes foies and fortes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. foies runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against fortes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between foies and fortes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foies is \fwa\ while fortes is \fɔʁt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50828, 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\. fortes is at rank #2,927, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fɔʁt\.
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 50828, this pair ranks #159,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foies vs fortes
Shared letters: efos. Private to "foies": i. Private to "fortes": rt.
"foies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "fortes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foies" and "fortes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "foies" vs "fortes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "foies" and "fortes" 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 "fortes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #159,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foies" and "fortes" 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 #159,631 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.