fondéesvsfondusConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#12,970
“fondées” frequency rank
#31,499
“fondus” frequency rank
44469
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fondées fondus
Definition Participe passé féminin pluriel de fonder. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe fondre.

Where the eye mixes fondées and fondus

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

7 ch
fondées
6 ch
fondus

Visual trap between fondées and fondus

A purely visual mix-up. fondées (\fɔ̃.de\) 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 44469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fondées is recorded at frequency rank #12,970, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔ̃.de\. 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 44469, this pair ranks #210,232 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fondées vs fondus

Shared letters: dfnos. Private to "fondées": eé. Private to "fondus": u.

"fondées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "fondus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fondus ← ffondus · fnodus · fodnus · fonddus · fondsu · fonduss · fonndus · fonuds

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fondées" and "fondus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fɔ̃.de\ versus \fɔ̃.dy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fondées" or "fondus"?
"fondées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,970 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "fondées" and "fondus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fondées" 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 #210,232 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fondées" 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 #210,232 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