Which to use
“foire” is a noun and “froide” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,869
- “foire” frequency rank
- #3,922
- “froide” frequency rank
- 9791
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foire | froide |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fête populaire qui a lieu à certaines dates de l’année. | Féminin singulier de froid. |
Where the eye mixes foire and froide
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses foire with froide
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foire is \fwaʁ\ while froide is \fʁwad\. 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 9791, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foire is recorded at frequency rank #5,869, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwaʁ\. froide is at rank #3,922, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fʁwad\.
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 9791, this pair ranks #415,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of foire vs froide
Shared letters: efior. Private to "foire": -. Private to "froide": d.
"foire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "froide" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foire" and "froide" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "foire" vs "froide" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "foire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "froide" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #415,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foire" and "froide" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foins vs foire". 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 #415,393 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.