Which to use
“foudre” and “fougère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,830
- “foudre” frequency rank
- #36,847
- “fougère” frequency rank
- 44677
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foudre | fougère |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Plante aux grandes feuilles, dont les très nombreuses espèces constituent la classe des filicinées, la plus importante classe des cryptogames vasculaires. |
Where the eye mixes foudre and fougère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. foudre runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against fougère's 7 (CVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses foudre with fougère
A purely visual mix-up. foudre (\fudʁ\) and fougère (\fu.ʒɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44677, 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\. fougère is at rank #36,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fu.ʒɛʁ\.
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 44677, this pair ranks #208,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foudre vs fougère
Shared letters: eforu. Private to "foudre": d. Private to "fougère": gè.
"foudre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "fougère" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- foudre ← ffoudre · fodure · fouddre · fouder · foudrre · fourde · fuodre · ofudre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "foudre" and "fougère" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "foudre" vs "fougère" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "fougère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #208,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foudre" and "fougère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forgée 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 #208,657 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.