fourcadevsfourcheConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#34,545
“fourcade” frequency rank
#20,730
“fourche” frequency rank
55275
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fourcade fourche
Definition Variante de forcade. Instrument qui consiste en un long manche de bois terminé par deux ou trois branches ou pointes de bois, de fer, qui vont en s’écartant.

Where the eye mixes fourcade and fourche

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
fourcade
7 ch
fourche

Look-alike desk: fourcade vs fourche

A purely visual mix-up. fourcade (\fuʁ.kad\) and fourche (\fuʁʃ\) 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 55275, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fourcade is recorded at frequency rank #34,545, classified as anoun, pronounced \fuʁ.kad\. fourche is at rank #20,730, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuʁʃ\.

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 55275, this pair ranks #128,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fourcade vs fourche

Shared letters: ceforu. Private to "fourcade": ad. Private to "fourche": h.

"fourcade" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV  ·  "fourche" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fourcadeffourcade · forucade · foucrade · fouracde · fourcadde · fourcaed · fourccade · fourcdae
  • fourcheffourche · foruche · foucrhe · fourcche · fourceh · fourchhe · fourhce · fourrche

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fourcade" for "fourche" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fuʁ.kad\ versus \fuʁʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fourcade" or "fourche"?
"fourche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,730 in our French list, against #34,545 for "fourcade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fourcade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fourche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #128,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fourcade" and "fourche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fourcade vs fourrage". 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 #128,483 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