foutagevsfoutreTell them apart

Quick tell: foutage is a noun, foutre is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“foutage” is a noun and “foutre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,291
“foutage” frequency rank
#1,867
“foutre” frequency rank
21158
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foutage foutre
Definition Action de foutre (la merde), de se foutre (de la gueule de quelqu'un), etc. Baiser ; posséder sexuellement.

Where the eye mixes foutage and foutre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. foutage runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against foutre's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
foutage
6 ch
foutre

Look-alike desk: foutage vs foutre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foutage is \fu.taʒ\ while foutre is \futʁ\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21158, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foutage is recorded at frequency rank #19,291, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu.taʒ\. foutre is at rank #1,867, tagged as averb, pronounced \futʁ\.

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 21158, this pair ranks #364,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of foutage vs foutre

Shared letters: efotu. Private to "foutage": ag. Private to "foutre": r.

"foutage" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "foutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foutage ← ffoutage · fotuage · fouatge · foutaeg · foutagge · foutgae · fouttage · fuotage
  • foutre ← ffoutre · foture · fourte · fouter · foutrre · fouttre · fuotre · ofutre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foutage" and "foutre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foutage" is a noun and "foutre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "foutage" or "foutre"?
"foutre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,867 in our French list, against #19,291 for "foutage". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "foutage" and "foutre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foutage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foutre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #364,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foutage" and "foutre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foutage vs foutaise". 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 #364,573 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