Which to use
“forte” is an adverb and “foutez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #942
- “forte” frequency rank
- #16,138
- “foutez” frequency rank
- 17080
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | forte | foutez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fort. Il se met, dans un morceau de musique, aux endroits où le son doit être renforcé. Le symbole : 𝆑. | Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de foutre. |
Where the eye mixes forte and foutez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses forte with foutez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: forte is \fɔʁ.te\ while foutez is \fu.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
forte is recorded at frequency rank #942, classified as anadv, pronounced \fɔʁ.te\. foutez is at rank #16,138, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.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 17080, this pair ranks #384,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of forte vs foutez
Shared letters: efot. Private to "forte": r. Private to "foutez": uz.
"forte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "foutez" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "forte" for "foutez" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "forte" or "foutez" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "forte" and "foutez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "forte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foutez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #384,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "forte" and "foutez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fontes vs foutez". 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 #384,904 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.