Which to use
“foin” and “fois” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,388
- “foin” frequency rank
- #104
- “fois” frequency rank
- 13492
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foin | fois |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Herbe fauchée et séchée qui sert principalement à la nourriture des chevaux et des bestiaux. | Nom qui se joint à un adjectif numéral pour indiquer qu’un fait s’est produit ou s’est répété. |
Where the eye mixes foin and fois
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. foin and fois follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses foin with fois
A purely visual mix-up. foin (\fwɛ̃\) and fois (\fwa\) 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 - n in “foin” becomes s in “fois”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foin is recorded at frequency rank #13,388, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwɛ̃\. fois is at rank #104, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwa\.
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 13492, this pair ranks #400,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of foin vs fois
Shared letters: fio. Private to "foin": n. Private to "fois": s.
"foin" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "foin" and "fois" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "foin" or "fois"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "foin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fois" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foin" and "fois" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FIV vs foin". 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 #400,806 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.