fonsvsFransWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fons is a noun, Frans is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fons” is a noun and “Frans” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,445
“fons” frequency rank
#30,166
“Frans” frequency rank
73611
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fons Frans
Definition Fonds (patrimoine). Commune française, située dans le département de l’Ain.

Letter map: fons vs Frans

Shared letters muted; letters that set fons and Frans apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. fons runs 4 letters (CVCC) against Frans's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
fons
5 ch
Frans

Grammar separator: fons vs Frans

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fons is anoun and Fransaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73611, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fons is recorded at frequency rank #43,445, classified as anoun. Frans is at rank #30,166, tagged as aname, pronounced \fʁɑ̃\.

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 73611, this pair ranks #39,851 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fons vs Frans

Shared letters: fns. Private to "fons": o. Private to "Frans": ar.

"fons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Frans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fons ← ffons · fnos · fonns · fonss · fosn · ofns
  • Frans ← farns · ffrans · franns · franss · frasn · frnas · frrans · rfans

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fons" and "Frans" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fons" is a noun and "Frans" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fons" or "Frans"?
"Frans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,166 in our French list, against #43,445 for "fons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Frans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,851 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fons" and "Frans" 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 #39,851 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