foudresvsfougèresTell them apart

Which to use

“foudres” and “fougères” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,217
“foudres” frequency rank
#22,273
“fougères” frequency rank
45490
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foudres fougères
Definition Pluriel de foudre. Pluriel de fougère.

Where the eye mixes foudres and fougères

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. foudres runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against fougères's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
foudres
8 ch
fougères

Look-alike desk: foudres vs fougères

A purely visual mix-up. foudres (\fudʁ\) and fougères (\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 45490, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foudres is recorded at frequency rank #23,217, classified as anoun, pronounced \fudʁ\. fougères is at rank #22,273, 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 45490, this pair ranks #202,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foudres vs fougères

Shared letters: eforsu. Private to "foudres": d. Private to "fougères": gè.

"foudres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "fougères" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foudres ← ffoudres · fodures · fouddres · fouders · foudress · foudrres · foudrse · fourdes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foudres" and "fougères" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fudʁ\ versus \fu.ʒɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "foudres" or "fougères"?
"fougères" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,273 in our French list, against #23,217 for "foudres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "foudres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fougères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #202,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foudres" and "fougères" 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 #202,359 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list