Which to use
“fondus” is a verb and “fontes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,499
- “fondus” frequency rank
- #46,178
- “fontes” frequency rank
- 77677
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fondus | fontes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe fondre. | Fourreau de cuir pour les pistolets. |
Where the eye mixes fondus and fontes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fondus and fontes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses fondus with fontes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fondus is \fɔ̃.dy\ while fontes is \fɔ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77677, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fondus is recorded at frequency rank #31,499, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔ̃.dy\. fontes is at rank #46,178, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃t\.
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 77677, this pair ranks #27,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fondus vs fontes
Shared letters: fnos. Private to "fondus": du. Private to "fontes": et.
"fondus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fontes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fondus" and "fontes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "fondus" vs "fontes" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fondus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fontes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fondus" and "fontes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs fontes". 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 #27,722 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.