Which to use
“foins” and “folies” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,534
- “foins” frequency rank
- #15,382
- “folies” frequency rank
- 63916
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foins | folies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de foin. | Pluriel de folie. |
Where the eye mixes foins and folies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. foins runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against folies's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: foins vs folies
A purely visual mix-up. foins (\fwɛ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63916, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foins is recorded at frequency rank #48,534, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwɛ̃\. 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 63916, this pair ranks #79,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foins vs folies
Shared letters: fios. Private to "foins": n. Private to "folies": el.
"foins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "folies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foins" and "folies" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "foins" or "folies" show up more?
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 "foins" 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 #79,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foins" and "folies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs foins". 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 #79,551 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.