foutvsfunConfusable pair

Quick tell: fout is a verb, fun is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fout” is a verb and “fun” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,403
“fout” frequency rank
#5,870
“fun” frequency rank
9273
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fout fun
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de foutre. Amusant.

Letter map: fout vs fun

Shared letters muted; letters that set fout and fun apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
fout
3 ch
fun

Grammar separator: fout vs fun

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fout is averb and funanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9273, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fout is recorded at frequency rank #3,403, classified as averb. fun is at rank #5,870, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fœn\.

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 9273, this pair ranks #417,231 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fout vs fun

Shared letters: fu. Private to "fout": ot. Private to "fun": n.

"fout" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "fun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foutffout · fotu · foutt · fuot · ofut

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fout" and "fun" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fout" is a verb and "fun" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fout" or "fun"?
"fout" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,403 in our French list, against #5,870 for "fun". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "fout" vs "fun" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fout" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #417,231 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fout" and "fun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fun". 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 #417,231 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