fonsvsfunWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fons is a noun, fun is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#43,445
“fons” frequency rank
#5,870
“fun” frequency rank
49315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fons fun
Definition Fonds (patrimoine). Amusant.

Letter map: fons vs fun

Shared letters muted; letters that set fons and fun apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
fons
3 ch
fun

Role in the sentence - fons and fun

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fons is anoun and funanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fons is recorded at frequency rank #43,445, classified as anoun. fun is at rank #5,870, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fœn\.

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 49315, this pair ranks #171,698 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fons vs fun

Shared letters: fn. Private to "fons": os. Private to "fun": u.

"fons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fonsffons · fnos · fonns · fonss · fosn · ofns

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fons" and "fun" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fons" is a noun and "fun" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fons" or "fun"?
"fun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,870 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 "fun".

  • Full dictionary entry for "fons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #171,698 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fons" and "fun" 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 #171,698 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