Which to use
“fouille” is a noun and “fouiller” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,056
- “fouille” frequency rank
- #11,590
- “fouiller” frequency rank
- 22646
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fouille | fouiller |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ouverture que l’on pratique dans la terre pour mettre à découvert ce qui y est enfermé ou pour faire les fondations d’une maison, pour creuser une mine, un canal, etc. | Pratiquer un creux dans la terre. |
Where the eye mixes fouille and fouiller
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. fouille runs 7 letters (CVVVCCV) against fouiller's 8 (CVVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fouille vs fouiller
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fouille is \fuj\ while fouiller is \fu.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “fouille” sits inside “fouiller”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22646, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fouille is recorded at frequency rank #11,056, classified as anoun, pronounced \fuj\. fouiller is at rank #11,590, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.je\.
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 22646, this pair ranks #356,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fouille vs fouiller
Shared letters: efilou. Private to "fouille": -. Private to "fouiller": r.
"fouille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV · "fouiller" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fouille" and "fouiller" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fouille" vs "fouiller" - which ranks higher?
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 "fouille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouiller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #356,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fouille" and "fouiller" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouiller vs fouiner". 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 #356,867 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.