Which to use
“fortuit” is an adjective and “foutait” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,465
- “fortuit” frequency rank
- #22,275
- “foutait” frequency rank
- 66740
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fortuit | foutait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui arrive ou qu’on croit arriver par hasard, d’une manière imprévue. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de foutre. |
Where the eye mixes fortuit and foutait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fortuit (CVCCVVC) and foutait (CVVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses fortuit with foutait
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fortuit is \fɔʁ.tɥi\ while foutait is \fu.tɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fortuit is recorded at frequency rank #44,465, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɔʁ.tɥi\. foutait is at rank #22,275, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.tɛ\.
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 66740, this pair ranks #66,472 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fortuit vs foutait
Shared letters: fiotu. Private to "fortuit": r. Private to "foutait": a.
"fortuit" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "foutait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fortuit" and "foutait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fortuit" vs "foutait" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fortuit" and "foutait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fortuit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foutait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #66,472 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fortuit" and "foutait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fortis vs fortuit". 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 #66,472 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.