fortifievsfortifiéesTell them apart

Quick tell: fortifie is a verb, fortifiées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fortifie” is a verb and “fortifiées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,091
“fortifie” frequency rank
#49,092
“fortifiées” frequency rank
98183
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fortifie fortifiées
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de fortifier. Féminin pluriel de fortifié.

Where the eye mixes fortifie and fortifiées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. fortifie runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVV) against fortifiées's 10 (CVCCVCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
fortifie
10 ch
fortifiées

Visual trap between fortifie and fortifiées

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fortifie is \fɔʁ.ti.fi\ while fortifiées is \fɔʁ.ti.fje\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 98183, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fortifie is recorded at frequency rank #49,091, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔʁ.ti.fi\. fortifiées is at rank #49,092, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fɔʁ.ti.fje\.

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 98183, this pair ranks #180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fortifie vs fortifiées

Shared letters: efiort. Private to "fortifie": -. Private to "fortifiées": sé.

"fortifie" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "fortifiées" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fortifie ← ffortifie · foritfie · forrtifie · fortfiie · fortifei · fortiffie · fortiife · forttifie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fortifie" for "fortifiées" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fortifie" is a verb and "fortifiées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fortifie" vs "fortifiées" - which ranks higher?
"fortifie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #49,091 in our French list, against #49,092 for "fortifiées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fortifie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fortifiées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fortifie" and "fortifiées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fortifiées vs fortifiés". 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 #180 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