Which to use
“foins” and “fond” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,534
- “foins” frequency rank
- #518
- “fond” frequency rank
- 49052
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foins | fond |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de foin. | Endroit le plus bas, le plus intérieur d’une chose creuse. |
Where the eye mixes foins and fond
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. foins runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against fond's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses foins with fond
A purely visual mix-up. foins (\fwɛ̃\) and fond (\fɔ̃\) 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 49052, 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\. fond is at rank #518, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃\.
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 49052, this pair ranks #173,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foins vs fond
Shared letters: fno. Private to "foins": is. Private to "fond": d.
"foins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "fond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foins" and "fond" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "foins" or "fond" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "foins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fond" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #173,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foins" and "fond" 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 #173,857 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.