forervsforezTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,346
“forer” frequency rank
#32,822
“forez” frequency rank
75168
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature forer forez
Definition Creuser un orifice dans une matière rigide. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de forer.

Same sound, different letters: forer vs forez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. forer and forez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
forer
5 ch
forez

Ear matches; page differs - forer and forez

This is the hard kind. forer and forez are pronounced identically (\fɔ.ʁe\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - r in “forer” becomes z in “forez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75168, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

forer is recorded at frequency rank #42,346, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔ.ʁe\. forez is at rank #32,822, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɔ.ʁe\.

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 75168, this pair ranks #34,913 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of forer vs forez

Shared letters: efor. Private to "forer": -. Private to "forez": z.

"forer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "forez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • forer ← fforer · foerr · forerr · forre · forrer · froer · ofrer
  • forez ← fforez · foerz · forezz · forrez · forze · froez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "forer" for "forez" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fɔ.ʁe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "forer" vs "forez" - which ranks higher?
"forez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,822 in our French list, against #42,346 for "forer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "forer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "forez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,913 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "forer" and "forez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs forer". 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 #34,913 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