fourrévsfurieWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,597
“fourré” frequency rank
#23,873
“furie” frequency rank
48470
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fourré furie
Definition Vêtu de fourrure. Divinité infernale dont la fonction était de tourmenter les méchants, les criminels, soit dans les enfers, soit sur la terre.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fourré and furie apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
fourré
5 ch
furie

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fourré is \fu.ʁe\ while furie is \fy.ʁi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48470, 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\. furie is at rank #23,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fy.ʁi\.

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 48470, this pair ranks #178,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fourré vs furie

Shared letters: fru. Private to "fourré": . Private to "furie": ei.

"fourré" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "furie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • furieffurie · fruie · fuire · furei · furrie · ufrie

Frequency comparison

fourré#24,597
furie#23,873

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fourré" and "furie" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fourré" is an adjective and "furie" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fourré" or "furie"?
"furie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,873 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.

Remembering fourré vs furie

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “fourré”; for a noun, it's “furie”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fourré” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list