Which to use
“folie” and “fosse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,197
- “folie” frequency rank
- #7,964
- “fosse” frequency rank
- 11161
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | folie | fosse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dérangement de l’esprit, accès de folie. | Cavité dans le sol, le plus souvent artificielle. |
Where the eye mixes folie and fosse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. folie (CVCVV) and fosse (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between folie and fosse
A purely visual mix-up. folie (\fɔ.li\) and fosse (\fos\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
folie is recorded at frequency rank #3,197, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ.li\. fosse is at rank #7,964, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fos\.
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 11161, this pair ranks #410,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of folie vs fosse
Shared letters: efo. Private to "folie": il. Private to "fosse": s.
"folie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "folie" and "fosse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "folie" or "fosse"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "folie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fosse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #410,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "folie" and "fosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fosse vs fuse". 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 #410,243 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.