Which to use
“fondre” is a verb and “fondues” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,829
- “fondre” frequency rank
- #45,619
- “fondues” frequency rank
- 53448
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fondre | fondues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Liquéfier ou rendre fluide, au moyen de la chaleur, une substance plus ou moins solide. | Pluriel de fondue. |
Where the eye mixes fondre and fondues
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fondre runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against fondues's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fondre vs fondues
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fondre is \fɔ̃dʁ\ while fondues is \fɔ̃.dy\. 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 53448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fondre is recorded at frequency rank #7,829, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔ̃dʁ\. fondues is at rank #45,619, tagged as anoun, 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 53448, this pair ranks #140,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fondre vs fondues
Shared letters: defno. Private to "fondre": r. Private to "fondues": su.
"fondre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "fondues" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fondre" for "fondues" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fondre" or "fondues" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fondre" and "fondues" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fondre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fondues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #140,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fondre" and "fondues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fondeurs vs fondues". 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 #140,665 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.