fondsvsfonsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,062
“fonds” frequency rank
#43,445
“fons” frequency rank
44507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fonds fons
Definition Ensemble de biens matériels ou immatériels servant à l’usage principal d’une activité. Fonds (patrimoine).

Letter map: fonds vs fons

Shared letters muted; letters that set fonds and fons apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. fonds runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against fons's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
fonds
4 ch
fons

Pair insight - fonds / fons

fonds and fons are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fonds is recorded at frequency rank #1,062, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃\. fons is at rank #43,445, tagged as anoun.

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 44507, this pair ranks #209,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fonds vs fons

Shared letters: fnos. Private to "fonds": d. Private to "fons": -.

"fonds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "fons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fonds ← ffonds · fnods · fodns · fondds · fondss · fonnds · fonsd · ofnds
  • fons ← ffons · fnos · fonns · fonss · fosn · ofns

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fonds" and "fons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "fonds" vs "fons" - which ranks higher?
"fonds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,062 in our French list, against #43,445 for "fons". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "fonds" vs "fons" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fonds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #209,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fonds" and "fons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foins vs fons". 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 #209,975 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