fondéevsforgéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,612
“fondée” frequency rank
#33,690
“forgée” frequency rank
37302
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fondée forgée
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de fonder. Participe passé féminin singulier de forger.

Where the eye mixes fondée and forgée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fondée and forgée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
fondée
6 ch
forgée

Visual trap between fondée and forgée

A purely visual mix-up. fondée (\fɔ̃.de\) and forgée (\fɔʁ.ʒe\) 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 37302, 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\. forgée is at rank #33,690, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɔʁ.ʒe\.

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 37302, this pair ranks #263,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fondée vs forgée

Shared letters: efoé. Private to "fondée": dn. Private to "forgée": gr.

"fondée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "forgée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fondée" and "forgée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fɔ̃.de\ versus \fɔʁ.ʒe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fondée" vs "forgée" - which ranks higher?
"fondée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,612 in our French list, against #33,690 for "forgée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fondée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "forgée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #263,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fondée" and "forgée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forer vs forgée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #263,413 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