formevsformeraWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#371
“forme” frequency rank
#35,044
“formera” frequency rank
35415
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature forme formera
Definition Aspect extérieur, configuration caractéristique ou particulière d’une chose. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de former.

Where the eye mixes forme and formera

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

5 ch
forme
7 ch
formera

Why the eye confuses forme with formera

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: forme is \fɔʁm\ while formera is \fɔʁ.mə.ʁa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “forme” sits inside “formera”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35415, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

forme is recorded at frequency rank #371, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔʁm\. formera is at rank #35,044, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɔʁ.mə.ʁa\.

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 35415, this pair ranks #276,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of forme vs formera

Shared letters: efmor. Private to "forme": -. Private to "formera": a.

"forme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "formera" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • formefforme · fomre · forem · formme · forrme · frome · ofrme
  • formerafformera · fomrera · foremra · formear · formerra · formmera · formrea · forrmera

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "forme" for "formera" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "forme" is a noun and "formera" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "forme" vs "formera" - which ranks higher?
"forme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #371 in our French list, against #35,044 for "formera". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "forme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "formera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #276,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "forme" and "formera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forer vs formera". 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 #276,919 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