Which to use
“forma” and “formaté” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,654
- “forma” frequency rank
- #48,537
- “formaté” frequency rank
- 74191
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | forma | formaté |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de former. | Participe passé masculin singulier de formater. |
Where the eye mixes forma and formaté
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. forma runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against formaté's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: forma vs formaté
A purely visual mix-up. forma (\fɔʁ.ma\) and formaté (\fɔʁ.ma.te\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “forma” sits inside “formaté”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
forma is recorded at frequency rank #25,654, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔʁ.ma\. formaté is at rank #48,537, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɔʁ.ma.te\.
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 74191, this pair ranks #37,934 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of forma vs formaté
Shared letters: afmor. Private to "forma": -. Private to "formaté": té.
"forma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "formaté" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- forma ← fforma · fomra · foram · formma · forrma · froma · ofrma
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "forma" and "formaté" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "forma" vs "formaté" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "forma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "formaté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,934 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "forma" and "formaté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "formaté vs formater". 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 #37,934 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.