Which to use
“foires” and “foudres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,134
- “foires” frequency rank
- #23,217
- “foudres” frequency rank
- 39351
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foires | foudres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de foire. | Pluriel de foudre. |
Where the eye mixes foires and foudres
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. foires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against foudres's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between foires and foudres
A purely visual mix-up. foires (\fwaʁ\) and foudres (\fudʁ\) 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 39351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foires is recorded at frequency rank #16,134, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwaʁ\. foudres is at rank #23,217, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fudʁ\.
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 39351, this pair ranks #248,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foires vs foudres
Shared letters: efors. Private to "foires": i. Private to "foudres": du.
"foires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "foudres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foires" and "foudres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "foires" or "foudres"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "foires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foudres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #248,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foires" and "foudres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foudres vs foulées". 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 #248,643 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.