Which to use
“foutais” is a verb and “foutaise” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,175
- “foutais” frequency rank
- #36,850
- “foutaise” frequency rank
- 65025
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foutais | foutaise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de foutre. | Chose sans importance, sans utilité, sans intérêt, dénuée de sens. |
Where the eye mixes foutais and foutaise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. foutais runs 7 letters (CVVCVVC) against foutaise's 8 (CVVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between foutais and foutaise
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foutais is \fu.tɛ\ while foutaise is \fu.tɛz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “foutais” sits inside “foutaise”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foutais is recorded at frequency rank #28,175, classified as averb, pronounced \fu.tɛ\. foutaise is at rank #36,850, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fu.tɛz\.
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 65025, this pair ranks #74,230 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foutais vs foutaise
Shared letters: afiostu. Private to "foutais": -. Private to "foutaise": e.
"foutais" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "foutaise" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foutais" for "foutaise" ever safe?
Frequency check: "foutais" vs "foutaise" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "foutais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foutaise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #74,230 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foutais" and "foutaise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fortis vs foutais". 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 #74,230 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.