formavsforméeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,654
“forma” frequency rank
#6,959
“formée” frequency rank
32613
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature forma formée
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de former. Participe passé féminin singulier de former.

Where the eye mixes forma and formée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
forma
6 ch
formée

Look-alike desk: forma vs formée

A purely visual mix-up. forma (\fɔʁ.ma\) and formée (\fɔʁ.me\) 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 32613, 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\. formée is at rank #6,959, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɔʁ.me\.

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 32613, this pair ranks #296,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of forma vs formée

Shared letters: fmor. Private to "forma": a. Private to "formée": .

"forma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "formée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • formafforma · fomra · foram · formma · forrma · froma · ofrma

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "forma" and "formée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fɔʁ.ma\ versus \fɔʁ.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "forma" vs "formée" - which ranks higher?
"formée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,959 in our French list, against #25,654 for "forma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "forma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "formée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #296,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "forma" and "formée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forma vs formaté". 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 #296,136 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