follvsfousWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“foll” and “fous” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,043
“foll” frequency rank
#2,126
“fous” frequency rank
37169
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foll fous
Definition Fou. Masculin pluriel de fou.

Where the eye mixes foll and fous

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. foll (CVCC) and fous (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
foll
4 ch
fous

Why the eye confuses foll with fous

A purely visual mix-up. foll (\ˈfɔlː\) and fous (\fu\) 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 37169, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foll is recorded at frequency rank #35,043, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈfɔlː\. fous is at rank #2,126, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fu\.

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 37169, this pair ranks #264,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foll vs fous

Shared letters: fo. Private to "foll": l. Private to "fous": su.

"foll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foll ← ffoll · flol · ofll
  • fous ← ffous · fosu · fouss · fuos · ofus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foll" and "fous" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈfɔlː\ versus \fu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "foll" or "fous"?
"fous" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,126 in our French list, against #35,043 for "foll". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foll" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #264,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foll" and "fous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Feld vs foll". 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 #264,396 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