Which to use
“foudre” is a noun and “foudroyé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,830
- “foudre” frequency rank
- #47,903
- “foudroyé” frequency rank
- 55733
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foudre | foudroyé |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Participe passé masculin singulier de foudroyer. |
Where the eye mixes foudre and foudroyé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. foudre runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against foudroyé's 8 (CVVCCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses foudre with foudroyé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foudre is \fudʁ\ while foudroyé is \fu.dʁwa.je\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55733, 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\. foudroyé is at rank #47,903, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.dʁwa.je\.
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 55733, this pair ranks #125,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foudre vs foudroyé
Shared letters: dforu. Private to "foudre": e. Private to "foudroyé": yé.
"foudre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "foudroyé" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- foudre ← ffoudre · fodure · fouddre · fouder · foudrre · fourde · fuodre · ofudre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foudre" and "foudroyé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "foudre" or "foudroyé"?
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 "foudre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foudroyé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #125,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foudre" and "foudroyé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foudre vs fougère". 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 #125,561 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.