Which to use
“fondement” is a noun and “fortement” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,245
- “fondement” frequency rank
- #1,737
- “fortement” frequency rank
- 9982
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fondement | fortement |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Maçonnerie qui sert de base à un édifice ou à une construction, et qui se fait dans la terre jusqu’au rez-de-chaussée. | Avec force. |
Where the eye mixes fondement and fortement
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. fondement and fortement follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: fondement vs fortement
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fondement is \fɔ̃d.mɑ̃\ while fortement is \fɔʁ.tə.mɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9982, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fondement is recorded at frequency rank #8,245, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃d.mɑ̃\. fortement is at rank #1,737, tagged as anadv, pronounced \fɔʁ.tə.mɑ̃\.
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 9982, this pair ranks #414,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fondement vs fortement
Shared letters: efmnot. Private to "fondement": d. Private to "fortement": r.
"fondement" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC · "fortement" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fondement" and "fortement" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "fondement" vs "fortement" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fondement" and "fortement" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fondement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fortement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #414,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fondement" and "fortement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fondement vs fondèrent". 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 #414,676 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.