fourrévsfoutueConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,597
“fourré” frequency rank
#14,264
“foutue” frequency rank
38861
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fourré foutue
Definition Vêtu de fourrure. Féminin singulier de foutu.

Where the eye mixes fourré and foutue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fourré (CVVCCV) and foutue (CVVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
fourré
6 ch
foutue

Look-alike desk: fourré vs foutue

A purely visual mix-up. fourré (\fu.ʁe\) and foutue (\fu.ty\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38861, 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\. foutue is at rank #14,264, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fu.ty\.

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 38861, this pair ranks #252,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fourré vs foutue

Shared letters: fou. Private to "fourré": ré. Private to "foutue": et.

"fourré" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "foutue" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foutue ← ffoutue · fotuue · fouteu · fouttue · fouute · fuotue · ofutue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fourré" and "foutue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fu.ʁe\ versus \fu.ty\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "fourré" or "foutue" show up more?
"foutue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,264 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "fourré" and "foutue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fourré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foutue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fourré" and "foutue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fluctue vs foutue". 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 #252,291 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