formvsformesConfusable pair

Quick tell: form is a verb, formes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“form” is a verb and “formes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,370
“form” frequency rank
#1,626
“formes” frequency rank
27996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature form formes
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de formen. Pluriel de forme.

Same sound, different letters: form vs formes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

4 ch
form
6 ch
formes

Homophone desk: form vs formes

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: form and formes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \fɔʁm\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “form” sits inside “formes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

form is recorded at frequency rank #26,370, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔʁm\. 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 27996, this pair ranks #325,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of form vs formes

Shared letters: fmor. Private to "form": -. Private to "formes": es.

"form" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "formes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • formfform · fomr · formm · forrm · ofrm
  • formesfformes · fomres · forems · formess · formmes · formse · forrmes · fromes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "form" and "formes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "form" is a verb and "formes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "form" vs "formes" - which ranks higher?
"formes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,626 in our French list, against #26,370 for "form". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "form" 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 #325,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "form" and "formes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "form vs FPR". 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 #325,521 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