Which to use
“foutaise” is a noun and “foutait” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,850
- “foutaise” frequency rank
- #22,275
- “foutait” frequency rank
- 59125
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foutaise | foutait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chose sans importance, sans utilité, sans intérêt, dénuée de sens. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de foutre. |
Where the eye mixes foutaise and foutait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. foutaise runs 8 letters (CVVCVVCV) against foutait's 7 (CVVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: foutaise vs foutait
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foutaise is \fu.tɛz\ while foutait is \fu.tɛ\. 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 59125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foutaise is recorded at frequency rank #36,850, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu.tɛz\. foutait is at rank #22,275, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.tɛ\.
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 59125, this pair ranks #104,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foutaise vs foutait
Shared letters: afiotu. Private to "foutaise": es. Private to "foutait": -.
"foutaise" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVVCV · "foutait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foutaise" for "foutait" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "foutaise" or "foutait" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "foutaise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foutait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #104,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foutaise" and "foutait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foutaise vs foutaises". 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 #104,927 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.