Which to use
“foudre” and “foudres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,830
- “foudre” frequency rank
- #23,217
- “foudres” frequency rank
- 31047
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foudre | foudres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Décharge électrique, par temps d’orage, entre des nuages et certaines fois entre des nuages et le sol, qui produit une vive lumière (dite éclair) et une violente détonation (dont le son est dit tonnerre). On dit, comme sur la photo, que la foudre est tombée quand elle a touché le sol ou quelque chose en relief sur le sol ou connecté au sol: arbre, construction, etc., a été touché. | Pluriel de foudre. |
Same sound, different letters: foudre vs foudres
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. foudre runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against foudres's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - foudre / foudres
This is the hard kind. foudre and foudres are pronounced identically (\fudʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “foudre” sits inside “foudres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foudre is recorded at frequency rank #7,830, classified as anoun, pronounced \fudʁ\. foudres is at rank #23,217, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fudʁ\.
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 31047, this pair ranks #306,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foudre vs foudres
Shared letters: deforu. Private to "foudre": -. Private to "foudres": s.
"foudre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "foudres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foudre" for "foudres" ever safe?
Which is more common, "foudre" or "foudres"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "foudre" / "foudres". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "foudre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foudres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #306,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foudre" and "foudres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foudres vs foulées". 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 #306,327 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.