Which to use
“fois” and “foison” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #104
- “fois” frequency rank
- #37,817
- “foison” frequency rank
- 37921
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fois | foison |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom qui se joint à un adjectif numéral pour indiquer qu’un fait s’est produit ou s’est répété. | Très grande abondance. |
Where the eye mixes fois and foison
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses fois with foison
A purely visual mix-up. fois (\fwa\) and foison (\fwa.zɔ̃\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “fois” sits inside “foison”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37921, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fois is recorded at frequency rank #104, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwa\. foison is at rank #37,817, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwa.zɔ̃\.
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 37921, this pair ranks #259,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fois vs foison
Shared letters: fios. Private to "fois": -. Private to "foison": n.
"fois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "foison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fois" and "foison" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "fois" or "foison"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foison" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fois" and "foison" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foison vs foulon". 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 #259,015 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.