fondéevsfondeurWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fondée is a verb, fondeur is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fondée” is a verb and “fondeur” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,612
“fondée” frequency rank
#38,301
“fondeur” frequency rank
41913
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fondée fondeur
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de fonder. Personne qui dirige une fonderie.

Where the eye mixes fondée and fondeur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fondée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against fondeur's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fondée
7 ch
fondeur

Visual trap between fondée and fondeur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fondée is \fɔ̃.de\ while fondeur is \fɔ̃.dœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41913, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fondée is recorded at frequency rank #3,612, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔ̃.de\. fondeur is at rank #38,301, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃.dœʁ\.

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 41913, this pair ranks #229,613 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fondée vs fondeur

Shared letters: defno. Private to "fondée": é. Private to "fondeur": ru.

"fondée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "fondeur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fondeur ← ffondeur · fnodeur · fodneur · fonddeur · fonderu · fondeurr · fonduer · fonedur

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fondée" and "fondeur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fondée" is a verb and "fondeur" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fondée" or "fondeur"?
"fondée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,612 in our French list, against #38,301 for "fondeur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fondée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fondeur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,613 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fondée" and "fondeur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fondeur vs fondeurs". 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 #229,613 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