Which to use
“foudre” and “four” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,830
- “foudre” frequency rank
- #4,150
- “four” frequency rank
- 11980
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foudre | four |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 4. |
Where the eye mixes foudre and four
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses foudre with four
A purely visual mix-up. foudre (\fudʁ\) and four (\ˈfoa\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11980, 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\. four is at rank #4,150, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈfoa\.
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 11980, this pair ranks #407,041 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of foudre vs four
Shared letters: foru. Private to "foudre": de. Private to "four": -.
"foudre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "four" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "foudre" and "four" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "foudre" vs "four" - 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 "four" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,041 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foudre" and "four" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foudre vs foudroyé". 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 #407,041 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.