forcéesvsfortesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,146
“forcées” frequency rank
#2,927
“fortes” frequency rank
23073
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature forcées fortes
Definition Féminin pluriel de forcé. Féminin pluriel de fort.

Where the eye mixes forcées and fortes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
forcées
6 ch
fortes

Look-alike desk: forcées vs fortes

A purely visual mix-up. forcées (\fɔʁ.se\) and fortes (\fɔʁt\) 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 23073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

forcées is recorded at frequency rank #20,146, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɔʁ.se\. fortes is at rank #2,927, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fɔʁt\.

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 23073, this pair ranks #354,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of forcées vs fortes

Shared letters: efors. Private to "forcées": . Private to "fortes": t.

"forcées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "fortes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fortesffortes · forrtes · fortess · fortse · forttes · fotres · frotes · ofrtes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "forcées" and "fortes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fɔʁ.se\ versus \fɔʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "forcées" or "fortes"?
"fortes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,927 in our French list, against #20,146 for "forcées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "forcées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fortes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #354,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "forcées" and "fortes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forcées vs foulées". 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 #354,526 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