fouléesvsfoutuesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#46,180
“foulées” frequency rank
#29,361
“foutues” frequency rank
75541
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foulées foutues
Definition Traces légères que la bête laisse de son pied, en passant sur l’herbe ou sur les feuilles. Participe passé féminin pluriel de foutre.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set foulées and foutues apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
foulées
7 ch
foutues

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foulées is \fu.le\ while foutues is \fu.ty\. 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 75541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foulées is recorded at frequency rank #46,180, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu.le\. foutues is at rank #29,361, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.ty\.

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 75541, this pair ranks #33,760 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of foulées vs foutues

Shared letters: efosu. Private to "foulées": . Private to "foutues": t.

"foulées" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "foutues" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foutuesffoutues · fotuues · fouteus · fouttues · foutuess · foutuse · fouutes · fuotues

Frequency comparison

foulées#46,180
foutues#29,361

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "foulées" and "foutues" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foulées" is a noun and "foutues" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "foulées" or "foutues"?
"foutues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,361 in our French list, against #46,180 for "foulées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering foulées vs foutues

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “foulées”; for a verb, it's “foutues”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “foulées” 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