fondavsfondusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,289
“fonda” frequency rank
#31,499
“fondus” frequency rank
50788
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fonda fondus
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de fonder. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe fondre.

Where the eye mixes fonda and fondus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
fonda
6 ch
fondus

Look-alike desk: fonda vs fondus

A purely visual mix-up. fonda (\fɔ̃.da\) and fondus (\fɔ̃.dy\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50788, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fonda is recorded at frequency rank #19,289, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔ̃.da\. fondus is at rank #31,499, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɔ̃.dy\.

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 50788, this pair ranks #159,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fonda vs fondus

Shared letters: dfno. Private to "fonda": a. Private to "fondus": su.

"fonda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fondus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fondaffonda · fnoda · fodna · fonad · fondda · fonnda · ofnda
  • fondusffondus · fnodus · fodnus · fonddus · fondsu · fonduss · fonndus · fonuds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fonda" and "fondus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fɔ̃.da\ versus \fɔ̃.dy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "fonda" or "fondus" show up more?
"fonda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,289 in our French list, against #31,499 for "fondus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "fonda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fondus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fonda" and "fondus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fondeurs vs fondus". 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 #159,983 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