foirervsfourrerTell them apart

Which to use

“foirer” and “fourrer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,319
“foirer” frequency rank
#22,274
“fourrer” frequency rank
47593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foirer fourrer
Definition Avoir la diarrhée, évacuer des excréments liquides. Introduire, mettre dans.

Where the eye mixes foirer and fourrer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
foirer
7 ch
fourrer

Look-alike desk: foirer vs fourrer

A purely visual mix-up. foirer (\fwa.ʁe\) and fourrer (\fu.ʁe\) 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 47593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foirer is recorded at frequency rank #25,319, classified as averb, pronounced \fwa.ʁe\. fourrer is at rank #22,274, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.ʁe\.

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 47593, this pair ranks #185,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foirer vs fourrer

Shared letters: efor. Private to "foirer": i. Private to "fourrer": u.

"foirer" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "fourrer" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foirerffoirer · fiorer · foierr · foirerr · foirrer · forier · ofirer
  • fourrerffourrer · forurer · fourer · fourerr · fourrerr · fourrre · fuorrer · ofurrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "foirer" and "fourrer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fwa.ʁe\ versus \fu.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "foirer" vs "fourrer" - which ranks higher?
"fourrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,274 in our French list, against #25,319 for "foirer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foirer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fourrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #185,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foirer" and "fourrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foirer vs fouiner". 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 #185,704 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list