Which to use
“fourche” and “fournée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,730
- “fourche” frequency rank
- #36,849
- “fournée” frequency rank
- 57579
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fourche | fournée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Quantité de pain qu’on fait cuire ou qu’on peut faire cuire à la fois dans un four. |
Where the eye mixes fourche and fournée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses fourche with fournée
A purely visual mix-up. fourche (\fuʁʃ\) and fournée (\fuʁ.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fourche is recorded at frequency rank #20,730, classified as anoun, pronounced \fuʁʃ\. fournée is at rank #36,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuʁ.ne\.
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 57579, this pair ranks #114,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fourche vs fournée
Shared letters: eforu. Private to "fourche": ch. Private to "fournée": né.
"fourche" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV · "fournée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fourche ← ffourche · foruche · foucrhe · fourcche · fourceh · fourchhe · fourhce · fourrche
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fourche" for "fournée" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fourche" vs "fournée" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fourche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fournée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #114,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fourche" and "fournée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouiner vs fournée". 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 #114,189 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.