fourrévsfourrerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fourré is a adjective, fourrer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fourré” is an adjective and “fourrer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,597
“fourré” frequency rank
#22,274
“fourrer” frequency rank
46871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fourré fourrer
Definition Vêtu de fourrure. Introduire, mettre dans.

Same sound, different letters: fourré vs fourrer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

6 ch
fourré
7 ch
fourrer

Same sound, different spelling - fourré / fourrer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: fourré and fourrer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \fu.ʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fourré is recorded at frequency rank #24,597, classified as anadj, pronounced \fu.ʁe\. fourrer is at rank #22,274, tagged as averb, 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 46871, this pair ranks #191,390 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fourré vs fourrer

Shared letters: foru. Private to "fourré": é. Private to "fourrer": e.

"fourré" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "fourrer" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fourrerffourrer · forurer · fourer · fourerr · fourrerr · fourrre · fuorrer · ofurrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fourré" and "fourrer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fourré" is an adjective and "fourrer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fourré" vs "fourrer" - which ranks higher?
"fourrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,274 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.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "fourré" / "fourrer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fourré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fourrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,390 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fourré" and "fourrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouiner vs fourrer". 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 #191,390 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