Which to use
“fons” and “fours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,445
- “fons” frequency rank
- #13,175
- “fours” frequency rank
- 56620
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fons | fours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fonds (patrimoine). | Pluriel de four. |
Letter map: fons vs fours
Shared letters muted; letters that set fons and fours apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. fons runs 4 letters (CVCC) against fours's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Pair insight - fons / fours
fons and fours 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 56620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fons is recorded at frequency rank #43,445, classified as anoun. fours is at rank #13,175, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuʁ\.
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 56620, this pair ranks #119,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fons vs fours
Shared letters: fos. Private to "fons": n. Private to "fours": ru.
"fons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fons" for "fours" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fons" vs "fours" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "fons" and "fours". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "fons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #119,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fons" and "fours" 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 #119,951 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.