fouléevsfoutreWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: foulée is a noun, foutre is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“foulée” is a noun and “foutre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,504
“foulée” frequency rank
#1,867
“foutre” frequency rank
12371
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foulée foutre
Definition Temps pendant lequel, dans la marche, le pied du cheval pose sur le sol. Baiser ; posséder sexuellement.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set foulée and foutre apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
foulée
6 ch
foutre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foulée is \fu.le\ while foutre is \futʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foulée is recorded at frequency rank #10,504, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu.le\. foutre is at rank #1,867, tagged as averb, pronounced \futʁ\.

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 12371, this pair ranks #405,528 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of foulée vs foutre

Shared letters: efou. Private to "foulée": . Private to "foutre": rt.

"foulée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV  ·  "foutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foutreffoutre · foture · fourte · fouter · foutrre · fouttre · fuotre · ofutre

Frequency comparison

foulée#10,504
foutre#1,867

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "foulée" and "foutre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foulée" is a noun and "foutre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "foulée" or "foutre"?
"foutre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,867 in our French list, against #10,504 for "foulée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering foulée vs foutre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “foulée”; for a verb, it's “foutre”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “foulée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list