fondésvsfoudresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,711
“fondés” frequency rank
#23,217
“foudres” frequency rank
40928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fondés foudres
Definition Pluriel de fondé. Pluriel de foudre.

Where the eye mixes fondés and foudres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fondés runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against foudres's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fondés
7 ch
foudres

Visual trap between fondés and foudres

A purely visual mix-up. fondés (\fɔ̃.de\) and foudres (\fudʁ\) 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 40928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fondés is recorded at frequency rank #17,711, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃.de\. foudres is at rank #23,217, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fudʁ\.

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 40928, this pair ranks #236,893 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fondés vs foudres

Shared letters: dfos. Private to "fondés": né. Private to "foudres": eru.

"fondés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "foudres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foudres ← ffoudres · fodures · fouddres · fouders · foudress · foudrres · foudrse · fourdes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fondés" and "foudres" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fɔ̃.de\ versus \fudʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "fondés" or "foudres" show up more?
"fondés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,711 in our French list, against #23,217 for "foudres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fondés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foudres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #236,893 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fondés" and "foudres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foudres vs foulées". 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 #236,893 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