Which to use
“fouets” and “fours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,094
- “fouets” frequency rank
- #13,175
- “fours” frequency rank
- 62269
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fouets | fours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de fouet. | Pluriel de four. |
Where the eye mixes fouets and fours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fouets vs fours
A purely visual mix-up. fouets (\fwɛ\) and fours (\fuʁ\) 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 62269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fouets is recorded at frequency rank #49,094, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwɛ\. fours is at rank #13,175, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuʁ\.
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 62269, this pair ranks #87,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fouets vs fours
Shared letters: fosu. Private to "fouets": et. Private to "fours": r.
"fouets" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC · "fours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fouets" and "fours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fouets" or "fours" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fouets" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fouets" and "fours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs fouets". 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 #87,974 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.