Which to use
“fougère” is a noun and “fouler” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,847
- “fougère” frequency rank
- #29,779
- “fouler” frequency rank
- 66626
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fougère | fouler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plante aux grandes feuilles, dont les très nombreuses espèces constituent la classe des filicinées, la plus importante classe des cryptogames vasculaires. | Presser quelque chose qui cède, avec les pieds, les mains ou à l’aide d’un mécanisme. |
Where the eye mixes fougère and fouler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fougère runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against fouler's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fougère and fouler
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fougère is \fu.ʒɛʁ\ while fouler is \fu.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66626, 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\. fouler is at rank #29,779, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.le\.
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 66626, this pair ranks #67,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fougère vs fouler
Shared letters: eforu. Private to "fougère": gè. Private to "fouler": l.
"fougère" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV · "fouler" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fouler ← ffouler · foluer · fouelr · foulerr · fouller · foulre · fuoler · ofuler
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fougère" for "fouler" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fougère" or "fouler" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fougère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #67,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fougère" and "fouler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouiner vs fouler". 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 #67,012 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.