folvsfrogTell them apart

Quick tell: fol is a adjective, frog is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fol” is an adjective and “frog” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,215
“fol” frequency rank
#42,890
“frog” frequency rank
66105
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fol frog
Definition Masculin singulier de fou lorsque le substantif qui suit dans la phrase commence par une voyelle ou un h muet. Surnom dont des Canadiens non francophones affublent les Québécois francophones.

Where the eye mixes fol and frog

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
fol
4 ch
frog

Why the eye confuses fol with frog

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fol is \fɔl\ while frog is \fɹɒɡ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66105, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fol is recorded at frequency rank #23,215, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɔl\. frog is at rank #42,890, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɹɒɡ\.

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 66105, this pair ranks #69,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fol vs frog

Shared letters: fo. Private to "fol": l. Private to "frog": gr.

"fol" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "frog" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • frogffrog · forg · frgo · frogg · frrog · rfog

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fol" and "frog" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fol" is an adjective and "frog" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "fol" or "frog" show up more?
"fol" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,215 in our French list, against #42,890 for "frog". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "fol" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frog" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fol" and "frog" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fog vs frog". 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 #69,275 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