foutevsfuiteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,598
“foute” frequency rank
#2,879
“fuite” frequency rank
27477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foute fuite
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de foutre. Action de fuir.

Where the eye mixes foute and fuite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
foute
5 ch
fuite

Visual trap between foute and fuite

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foute is \fut\ while fuite is \fɥit\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foute is recorded at frequency rank #24,598, classified as averb, pronounced \fut\. fuite is at rank #2,879, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɥit\.

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 27477, this pair ranks #328,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foute vs fuite

Shared letters: eftu. Private to "foute": o. Private to "fuite": i.

"foute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "fuite" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fouteffoute · fotue · foutte · fuote · ofute
  • fuiteffuite · fiute · fuiet · fuitte · futie · ufite

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foute" and "fuite" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foute" is a verb and "fuite" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "foute" or "fuite" show up more?
"fuite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,879 in our French list, against #24,598 for "foute". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fuite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #328,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foute" and "fuite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouets vs foute". 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 #328,706 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