fonsvsfuisTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#43,445
“fons” frequency rank
#14,680
“fuis” frequency rank
58125
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fons fuis
Definition Fonds (patrimoine). Participe passé masculin pluriel de fuir.

Letter map: fons vs fuis

Shared letters muted; letters that set fons and fuis apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. fons (CVCC) and fuis (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
fons
4 ch
fuis

Grammar separator: fons vs fuis

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fons is anoun and fuisaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fons is recorded at frequency rank #43,445, classified as anoun. fuis is at rank #14,680, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɥi\.

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 58125, this pair ranks #110,884 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fons vs fuis

Shared letters: fs. Private to "fons": no. Private to "fuis": iu.

"fons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fuis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fons ← ffons · fnos · fonns · fonss · fosn · ofns
  • fuis ← ffuis · fius · fuiss · fusi · ufis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fons" and "fuis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fons" is a noun and "fuis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "fons" or "fuis" show up more?
"fuis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,680 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.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "fons" and "fuis".

  • Full dictionary entry for "fons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fuis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,884 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fons" and "fuis" 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 #110,884 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