follementvsfortementTell them apart

Which to use

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

#27,816
“follement” frequency rank
#1,737
“fortement” frequency rank
29553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature follement fortement
Definition D’une manière folle, imprudente, excessive. Avec force.

Where the eye mixes follement and fortement

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. follement and fortement follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
follement
9 ch
fortement

Look-alike desk: follement vs fortement

A purely visual mix-up. follement (\fɔl.mɑ̃\) and fortement (\fɔʁ.tə.mɑ̃\) 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 29553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

follement is recorded at frequency rank #27,816, classified as anadv, pronounced \fɔl.mɑ̃\. fortement is at rank #1,737, tagged as anadv, pronounced \fɔʁ.tə.mɑ̃\.

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 29553, this pair ranks #315,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of follement vs fortement

Shared letters: efmnot. Private to "follement": l. Private to "fortement": r.

"follement" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC  ·  "fortement" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • follement ← ffollement · flolement · folelment · folement · folleemnt · follemennt · follementt · follemetn
  • fortement ← ffortement · foretment · forrtement · forteemnt · fortemennt · fortementt · fortemetn · fortemment

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "follement" for "fortement" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fɔl.mɑ̃\ versus \fɔʁ.tə.mɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "follement" vs "fortement" - which ranks higher?
"fortement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,737 in our French list, against #27,816 for "follement". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "follement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fortement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #315,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "follement" and "fortement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fortement vs foutrement". 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 #315,953 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