foulervsfourrerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“fouler” and “fourrer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,779
“fouler” frequency rank
#22,274
“fourrer” frequency rank
52053
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fouler fourrer
Definition Presser quelque chose qui cède, avec les pieds, les mains ou à l’aide d’un mécanisme. Introduire, mettre dans.

Where the eye mixes fouler and fourrer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
fouler
7 ch
fourrer

Look-alike desk: fouler vs fourrer

A purely visual mix-up. fouler (\fu.le\) and fourrer (\fu.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fouler is recorded at frequency rank #29,779, classified as averb, pronounced \fu.le\. fourrer is at rank #22,274, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.ʁe\.

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 52053, this pair ranks #150,516 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fouler vs fourrer

Shared letters: eforu. Private to "fouler": l. Private to "fourrer": -.

"fouler" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "fourrer" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foulerffouler · foluer · fouelr · foulerr · fouller · foulre · fuoler · ofuler
  • fourrerffourrer · forurer · fourer · fourerr · fourrerr · fourrre · fuorrer · ofurrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fouler" for "fourrer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fu.le\ versus \fu.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fouler" vs "fourrer" - which ranks higher?
"fourrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,274 in our French list, against #29,779 for "fouler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "fouler" and "fourrer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fouler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fourrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #150,516 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fouler" and "fourrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouiner vs fouler". 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 #150,516 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list