formuléesvsfouléesConfusable pair

Quick tell: formulées is a adjective, foulées is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“formulées” is an adjective and “foulées” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,290
“formulées” frequency rank
#46,180
“foulées” frequency rank
65470
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature formulées foulées
Definition Féminin pluriel de formulé. Traces légères que la bête laisse de son pied, en passant sur l’herbe ou sur les feuilles.

Where the eye mixes formulées and foulées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. formulées runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVVC) against foulées's 7 (CVVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
formulées
7 ch
foulées

Why the eye confuses formulées with foulées

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: formulées is \fɔʁ.my.le\ while foulées is \fu.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65470, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

formulées is recorded at frequency rank #19,290, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɔʁ.my.le\. foulées is at rank #46,180, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fu.le\.

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 65470, this pair ranks #72,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of formulées vs foulées

Shared letters: eflosué. Private to "formulées": mr. Private to "foulées": -.

"formulées" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC  ·  "foulées" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "formulées" and "foulées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "formulées" is an adjective and "foulées" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "formulées" or "foulées"?
"formulées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,290 in our French list, against #46,180 for "foulées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "formulées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foulées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "formulées" and "foulées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouets vs foulées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #72,198 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