Which to use
“fouille” and “foulée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,056
- “fouille” frequency rank
- #10,504
- “foulée” frequency rank
- 21560
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fouille | foulée |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Temps pendant lequel, dans la marche, le pied du cheval pose sur le sol. |
Where the eye mixes fouille and foulée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fouille runs 7 letters (CVVVCCV) against foulée's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fouille vs foulée
A purely visual mix-up. fouille (\fuj\) and foulée (\fu.le\) 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 21560, 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\. foulée is at rank #10,504, tagged as anoun, 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 21560, this pair ranks #362,534 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fouille vs foulée
Shared letters: eflou. Private to "fouille": i. Private to "foulée": é.
"fouille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV · "foulée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fouille ← ffouille · foiulle · fouile · fouilel · foulile · fuoille · ofuille
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fouille" for "foulée" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fouille" vs "foulée" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fouille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foulée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #362,534 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fouille" and "foulée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouille vs fourmille". 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 #362,534 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.