fougèrevsfougèresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,847
“fougère” frequency rank
#22,273
“fougères” frequency rank
59120
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fougère fougères
Definition Plante aux grandes feuilles, dont les très nombreuses espèces constituent la classe des filicinées, la plus importante classe des cryptogames vasculaires. Pluriel de fougère.

Same sound, different letters: fougère vs fougères

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. fougère runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against fougères's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
fougère
8 ch
fougères

Homophone desk: fougère vs fougères

This is the hard kind. fougère and fougères are pronounced identically (\fu.ʒɛʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “fougère” sits inside “fougères”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59120, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fougère is recorded at frequency rank #36,847, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu.ʒɛʁ\. 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 59120, this pair ranks #104,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fougère vs fougères

Shared letters: efgoruè. Private to "fougère": -. Private to "fougères": s.

"fougère" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "fougères" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fougère" and "fougères" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fu.ʒɛʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "fougère" or "fougères"?
"fougères" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,273 in our French list, against #36,847 for "fougère". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "fougère" / "fougères". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fougère" 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 #104,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fougère" and "fougères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forgée vs fougère". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #104,962 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