fonduvsfoundConfusable pair

Quick tell: fondu is a adjective, found is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fondu” is an adjective and “found” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,053
“fondu” frequency rank
#27,070
“found” frequency rank
38123
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fondu found
Definition Liquéfié. Prétérit et participe passé du verbe to find (« trouver »).

Where the eye mixes fondu and found

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
fondu
5 ch
found

Visual trap between fondu and found

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fondu is \fɔ̃.dy\ while found is \ˈfɑʊnd\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fondu is recorded at frequency rank #11,053, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɔ̃.dy\. found is at rank #27,070, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈfɑʊnd\.

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 38123, this pair ranks #257,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fondu vs found

Shared letters: dfnou. Private to "fondu": -. Private to "found": -.

"fondu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "found" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fonduffondu · fnodu · fodnu · fonddu · fonndu · fonud · ofndu
  • foundffound · foudn · foundd · founnd · fuond · ofund

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fondu" for "found" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fondu" is an adjective and "found" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fondu" or "found"?
"fondu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,053 in our French list, against #27,070 for "found". 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 "fondu" and "found" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fondu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "found" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #257,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fondu" and "found" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foins vs found". 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 #257,495 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