Which to use
“fouiller” is a verb and “fouilles” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,590
- “fouiller” frequency rank
- #8,712
- “fouilles” frequency rank
- 20302
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fouiller | fouilles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pratiquer un creux dans la terre. | Pluriel de fouille. |
Where the eye mixes fouiller and fouilles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. fouiller and fouilles follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between fouiller and fouilles
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fouiller is \fu.je\ while fouilles is \fuj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “fouiller” becomes s in “fouilles”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20302, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fouiller is recorded at frequency rank #11,590, classified as averb, pronounced \fu.je\. fouilles is at rank #8,712, tagged as anoun, 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 20302, this pair ranks #368,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fouiller vs fouilles
Shared letters: efilou. Private to "fouiller": r. Private to "fouilles": s.
"fouiller" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC · "fouilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fouiller" and "fouilles" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "fouiller" or "fouilles"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fouiller" and "fouilles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fouiller" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #368,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fouiller" and "fouilles" 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 #368,968 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.