Which to use
“fous” is an adjective and “foy” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,126
- “fous” frequency rank
- #14,677
- “foy” frequency rank
- 16803
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fous | foy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de fou. | rien, aucun problème. |
Letter map: fous vs foy
Shared letters muted; letters that set fous and foy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - fous and foy
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fous is anadjective and foyapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fous is recorded at frequency rank #2,126, classified as anadj, pronounced \fu\. foy is at rank #14,677, tagged as apron.
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 16803, this pair ranks #386,182 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fous vs foy
Shared letters: fo. Private to "fous": su. Private to "foy": y.
"fous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "foy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fous ← ffous · fosu · fouss · fuos · ofus
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fous" for "foy" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fous" or "foy"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "fous" and "foy".
- Full dictionary entry for "fous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #386,182 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fous" and "foy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs foy". 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 #386,182 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.