foncéesvsfoncièresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,951
“foncées” frequency rank
#21,942
“foncières” frequency rank
57893
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foncées foncières
Definition Pluriel de foncée. Pluriel de foncière.

Where the eye mixes foncées and foncières

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. foncées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against foncières's 9 (CVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
foncées
9 ch
foncières

Look-alike desk: foncées vs foncières

A purely visual mix-up. foncées (\fɔ̃.se\) and foncières (\fɔ̃.sjɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foncées is recorded at frequency rank #35,951, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃.se\. foncières is at rank #21,942, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃.sjɛʁ\.

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 57893, this pair ranks #112,305 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foncées vs foncières

Shared letters: cefnos. Private to "foncées": é. Private to "foncières": irè.

"foncées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "foncières" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "foncées" and "foncières" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fɔ̃.se\ versus \fɔ̃.sjɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "foncées" vs "foncières" - which ranks higher?
"foncières" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,942 in our French list, against #35,951 for "foncées". 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 "foncées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foncières" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,305 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foncées" and "foncières" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foncées vs foulées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #112,305 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