fourrésvsfoursWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#30,165
“fourrés” frequency rank
#13,175
“fours” frequency rank
43340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fourrés fours
Definition Masculin pluriel de fourré. Pluriel de four.

Where the eye mixes fourrés and fours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
fourrés
5 ch
fours

Why the eye confuses fourrés with fours

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fourrés is \fu.ʁe\ while fours is \fuʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 43340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fourrés is recorded at frequency rank #30,165, classified as anadj, pronounced \fu.ʁe\. fours is at rank #13,175, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuʁ\.

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 43340, this pair ranks #218,813 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fourrés vs fours

Shared letters: forsu. Private to "fourrés": é. Private to "fours": -.

"fourrés" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "fours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foursffours · forus · fourrs · fourss · fousr · fuors · ofurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fourrés" and "fours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fourrés" is an adjective and "fours" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "fourrés" or "fours" show up more?
"fours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,175 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.

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 "fourrés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,813 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fourrés" and "fours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foulées vs fourrés". 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 #218,813 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