Which to use
“fouine” is a noun and “found” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,730
- “fouine” frequency rank
- #27,070
- “found” frequency rank
- 53800
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fouine | found |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce de mammifère carnassier, de la famille des mustélidés (cf. martre, furet, putois) au corps mince et au museau allongé. | Prétérit et participe passé du verbe to find (« trouver »). |
Where the eye mixes fouine and found
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fouine runs 6 letters (CVVVCV) against found's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fouine and found
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fouine is \fwin\ while found is \ˈfɑʊnd\. 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 53800, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fouine is recorded at frequency rank #26,730, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwin\. found is at rank #27,070, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈfɑʊnd\.
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 53800, this pair ranks #138,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fouine vs found
Shared letters: fnou. Private to "fouine": ei. Private to "found": d.
"fouine" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV · "found" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fouine" for "found" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fouine" vs "found" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fouine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "found" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #138,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fouine" and "found" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foins vs found". 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 #138,270 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.