formulésvsfortunésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,294
“formulés” frequency rank
#23,216
“fortunés” frequency rank
64510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature formulés fortunés
Definition Masculin pluriel de formulé. Masculin pluriel de fortuné.

Where the eye mixes formulés and fortunés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. formulés and fortunés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
formulés
8 ch
fortunés

Why the eye confuses formulés with fortunés

A purely visual mix-up. formulés (\fɔʁ.my.le\) and fortunés (\fɔʁ.ty.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

formulés is recorded at frequency rank #41,294, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɔʁ.my.le\. fortunés is at rank #23,216, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fɔʁ.ty.ne\.

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 64510, this pair ranks #76,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of formulés vs fortunés

Shared letters: forsué. Private to "formulés": lm. Private to "fortunés": nt.

"formulés" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "fortunés" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "formulés" for "fortunés" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fɔʁ.my.le\ versus \fɔʁ.ty.ne\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "formulés" or "fortunés" show up more?
"fortunés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,216 in our French list, against #41,294 for "formulés". 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 "formulés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fortunés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #76,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "formulés" and "fortunés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "formels vs formulés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #76,697 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