Which to use
“folie” and “foule” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,197
- “folie” frequency rank
- #2,616
- “foule” frequency rank
- 5813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | folie | foule |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dérangement de l’esprit, accès de folie. | Action de fouler les draps. On dit plutôt foulage de nos jours. |
Where the eye mixes folie and foule
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses folie with foule
A purely visual mix-up. folie (\fɔ.li\) and foule (\ful\) 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 5813, 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\. foule is at rank #2,616, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ful\.
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 5813, this pair ranks #428,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of folie vs foule
Shared letters: eflo. Private to "folie": i. Private to "foule": u.
"folie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "foule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "folie" and "foule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "folie" or "foule"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "folie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #428,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "folie" and "foule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs folie". 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 #428,006 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.