Which to use
“four” and “fours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,150
- “four” frequency rank
- #13,175
- “fours” frequency rank
- 17325
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | four | fours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 4. | Pluriel de four. |
Where the eye mixes four and fours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: four vs fours
A purely visual mix-up. four (\ˈfoa\) and fours (\fuʁ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “four” sits inside “fours”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17325, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
four is recorded at frequency rank #4,150, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈfoa\. fours is at rank #13,175, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuʁ\.
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 17325, this pair ranks #383,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of four vs fours
Shared letters: foru. Private to "four": -. Private to "fours": s.
"four" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "four" and "fours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "four" or "fours"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "four" and "fours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "four" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "four" and "fours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouets vs fours". 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 #383,729 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.