foovsfoyConfusable pair

Quick tell: foo is a noun, foy is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“foo” is a noun and “foy” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,447
“foo” frequency rank
#14,677
“foy” frequency rank
58124
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foo foy
Definition Variable métasyntaxique en programmation informatique. rien, aucun problème.

Letter map: foo vs foy

Shared letters muted; letters that set foo and foy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
foo
3 ch
foy

Grammar separator: foo vs foy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foo is anoun and foyapronoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - o in “foo” becomes y in “foy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58124, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foo is recorded at frequency rank #43,447, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu\. foy is at rank #14,677, tagged as apron.

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 58124, this pair ranks #110,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of foo vs foy

Shared letters: fo. Private to "foo": -. Private to "foy": y.

"foo" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "foy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "foo" for "foy" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foo" is a noun and "foy" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "foo" vs "foy" - which ranks higher?
"foy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,677 in our French list, against #43,447 for "foo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "foo" vs "foy" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foo" and "foy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs foo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #110,891 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