Which to use
“foulées” is a noun and “fumées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,180
- “foulées” frequency rank
- #18,758
- “fumées” frequency rank
- 64938
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foulées | fumées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Traces légères que la bête laisse de son pied, en passant sur l’herbe ou sur les feuilles. | Féminin pluriel de fumé. |
Where the eye mixes foulées and fumées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. foulées runs 7 letters (CVVCVVC) against fumées's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses foulées with fumées
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foulées is \fu.le\ while fumées is \fy.me\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64938, 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\. fumées is at rank #18,758, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fy.me\.
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 64938, this pair ranks #74,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foulées vs fumées
Shared letters: efsué. Private to "foulées": lo. Private to "fumées": m.
"foulées" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "fumées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "foulées" and "fumées" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "foulées" vs "fumées" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "foulées" and "fumées" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "foulées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fumées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #74,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foulées" and "fumées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouets vs foulées". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #74,636 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.