Which to use
“fourrage” and “fourrure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,164
- “fourrage” frequency rank
- #11,591
- “fourrure” frequency rank
- 41755
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fourrage | fourrure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Paille, foin et toute autre espèce d’herbe qu’on donne pour nourriture aux bestiaux, aux chevaux, etc., lorsqu’on ne les fait pas paître. | Peau densément recouverte de poils de certains mammifères. |
Where the eye mixes fourrage and fourrure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. fourrage and fourrure follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between fourrage and fourrure
A purely visual mix-up. fourrage (\fu.ʁaʒ\) and fourrure (\fu.ʁyʁ\) 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 41755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fourrage is recorded at frequency rank #30,164, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu.ʁaʒ\. fourrure is at rank #11,591, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fu.ʁyʁ\.
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 41755, this pair ranks #230,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fourrage vs fourrure
Shared letters: eforu. Private to "fourrage": ag. Private to "fourrure": -.
"fourrage" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV · "fourrure" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fourrage" and "fourrure" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "fourrage" or "fourrure" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fourrage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fourrure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #230,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fourrage" and "fourrure" 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 #230,729 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.