fourrévsfourrésConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,597
“fourré” frequency rank
#30,165
“fourrés” frequency rank
54762
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fourré fourrés
Definition Vêtu de fourrure. Masculin pluriel de fourré.

Same sound, different letters: fourré vs fourrés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
fourré
7 ch
fourrés

Ear matches; page differs - fourré and fourrés

This is the hard kind. fourré and fourrés are pronounced identically (\fu.ʁe\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “fourré” sits inside “fourrés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54762, 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\. fourrés is at rank #30,165, 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 54762, this pair ranks #131,854 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fourré vs fourrés

Shared letters: forué. Private to "fourré": -. Private to "fourrés": s.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fourré" and "fourrés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fu.ʁe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "fourré" vs "fourrés" - which ranks higher?
"fourré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,597 in our French list, against #30,165 for "fourrés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fourré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fourrés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,854 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fourré" and "fourrés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foulées vs fourrés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #131,854 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