Which to use
“fouillée” and “fouillent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,848
- “fouillée” frequency rank
- #44,466
- “fouillent” frequency rank
- 81314
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fouillée | fouillent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de fouiller. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de fouiller. |
Where the eye mixes fouillée and fouillent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. fouillée runs 8 letters (CVVVCCVV) against fouillent's 9 (CVVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fouillée vs fouillent
A purely visual mix-up. fouillée (\fu.je\) and fouillent (\fuj\) 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 81314, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fouillée is recorded at frequency rank #36,848, classified as averb, pronounced \fu.je\. fouillent is at rank #44,466, tagged as averb, pronounced \fuj\.
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 81314, this pair ranks #19,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fouillée vs fouillent
Shared letters: efilou. Private to "fouillée": é. Private to "fouillent": nt.
"fouillée" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVV · "fouillent" · 9 letters · shape CVVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fouillent ← ffouillent · foiullent · fouilelnt · fouilent · fouillennt · fouillentt · fouilletn · fouillnet
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fouillée" for "fouillent" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fouillée" vs "fouillent" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fouillée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouillent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fouillée" and "fouillent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouillée vs fouillis". 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 #19,013 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.