foutvsfürWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fout is a verb, für is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,403
“fout” frequency rank
#24,219
“für” frequency rank
27622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fout für
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de foutre. Pour, à l’intention de.

Letter map: fout vs für

Shared letters muted; letters that set fout and für apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

4 ch
fout
3 ch
für

Part-of-speech tell for fout / für

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fout is averb and fürapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fout is recorded at frequency rank #3,403, classified as averb. für is at rank #24,219, tagged as aprep, pronounced \fyːɐ̯\.

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 27622, this pair ranks #327,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fout vs für

Shared letters: f. Private to "fout": otu. Private to "für": .

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foutffout · fotu · foutt · fuot · ofut

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fout" and "für" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fout" is a verb and "für" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fout" or "für"?
"fout" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,403 in our French list, against #24,219 for "für". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "fout" and "für".

  • Full dictionary entry for "fout" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "für" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #327,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fout" and "für" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs für". 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 #327,869 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