Which to use
“fondues” and “foudres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,619
- “fondues” frequency rank
- #23,217
- “foudres” frequency rank
- 68836
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fondues | foudres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de fondue. | Pluriel de foudre. |
Where the eye mixes fondues and foudres
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fondues (CVCCVVC) and foudres (CVVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses fondues with foudres
A purely visual mix-up. fondues (\fɔ̃.dy\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fondues is recorded at frequency rank #45,619, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃.dy\. 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 68836, this pair ranks #57,489 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fondues vs foudres
Shared letters: defosu. Private to "fondues": n. Private to "foudres": r.
"fondues" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "foudres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fondues" and "foudres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fondues" or "foudres" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fondues" and "foudres" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fondues" 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 #57,489 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fondues" and "foudres" 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 #57,489 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.