fournievsfourréWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,506
“fournie” frequency rank
#24,597
“fourré” frequency rank
35103
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fournie fourré
Definition Féminin singulier de fourni. Vêtu de fourrure.

Where the eye mixes fournie and fourré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fournie runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against fourré's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
fournie
6 ch
fourré

Why the eye confuses fournie with fourré

A purely visual mix-up. fournie (\fuʁ.ni\) and fourré (\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 35103, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fournie is recorded at frequency rank #10,506, classified as anadj, pronounced \fuʁ.ni\. fourré is at rank #24,597, tagged as anadj, 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 35103, this pair ranks #279,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fournie vs fourré

Shared letters: foru. Private to "fournie": ein. Private to "fourré": é.

"fournie" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV  ·  "fourré" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fournie ← ffournie · forunie · founrie · fourine · fournei · fournnie · fourrnie · fuornie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fournie" and "fourré" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fuʁ.ni\ versus \fu.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fournie" vs "fourré" - which ranks higher?
"fournie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,506 in our French list, against #24,597 for "fourré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fournie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fourré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #279,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fournie" and "fourré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fournée vs fourré". 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 #279,164 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