foragesvsformesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“forages” and “formes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,563
“forages” frequency rank
#1,626
“formes” frequency rank
30189
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature forages formes
Definition Pluriel de forage. Pluriel de forme.

Where the eye mixes forages and formes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. forages runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against formes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
forages
6 ch
formes

Visual trap between forages and formes

A purely visual mix-up. forages (\fɔ.ʁaʒ\) and formes (\fɔʁm\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30189, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

forages is recorded at frequency rank #28,563, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ.ʁaʒ\. formes is at rank #1,626, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔʁm\.

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 30189, this pair ranks #311,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of forages vs formes

Shared letters: efors. Private to "forages": ag. Private to "formes": m.

"forages" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "formes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • forages ← fforages · foarges · foraegs · foragess · foragges · foragse · forgaes · forrages
  • formes ← fformes · fomres · forems · formess · formmes · formse · forrmes · fromes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "forages" for "formes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fɔ.ʁaʒ\ versus \fɔʁm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "forages" or "formes"?
"formes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,626 in our French list, against #28,563 for "forages". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "forages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "formes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "forages" and "formes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "florales vs forages". 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 #311,945 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