foulonvsfourgonWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,772
“foulon” frequency rank
#21,630
“fourgon” frequency rank
62402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foulon fourgon
Definition Artisan qui foule, qui apprête les draps et autres étoffes de laine. Tige de fer ou longue perche de bois garnie de fer par le bout et servant à remuer, à arranger le bois et la braise dans le four.

Where the eye mixes foulon and fourgon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. foulon runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against fourgon's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
foulon
7 ch
fourgon

Look-alike desk: foulon vs fourgon

A purely visual mix-up. foulon (\fu.lɔ̃\) and fourgon (\fuʁ.ɡɔ̃\) 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 62402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foulon is recorded at frequency rank #40,772, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu.lɔ̃\. fourgon is at rank #21,630, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuʁ.ɡɔ̃\.

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 62402, this pair ranks #87,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of foulon vs fourgon

Shared letters: fnou. Private to "foulon": l. Private to "fourgon": gr.

"foulon" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "fourgon" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foulon ← ffoulon · foluon · foullon · foulno · foulonn · fouoln · fuolon · ofulon
  • fourgon ← ffourgon · forugon · fougron · fourggon · fourgno · fourgonn · fourogn · fourrgon

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foulon" and "fourgon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fu.lɔ̃\ versus \fuʁ.ɡɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "foulon" or "fourgon"?
"fourgon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,630 in our French list, against #40,772 for "foulon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foulon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fourgon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #87,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foulon" and "fourgon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foulon vs frelon". 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 #87,312 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