foutusvsfûtsTell them apart

Quick tell: foutus is a adjective, fûts is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“foutus” is an adjective and “fûts” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,712
“foutus” frequency rank
#21,949
“fûts” frequency rank
39661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foutus fûts
Definition Masculin pluriel de foutu. Pluriel de fût.

Where the eye mixes foutus and fûts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. foutus runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against fûts's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
foutus
4 ch
fûts

Why the eye confuses foutus with fûts

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foutus is \fu.ty\ while fûts is \fy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foutus is recorded at frequency rank #17,712, classified as anadj, pronounced \fu.ty\. fûts is at rank #21,949, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fy\.

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 39661, this pair ranks #246,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foutus vs fûts

Shared letters: fst. Private to "foutus": ou. Private to "fûts": û.

"foutus" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "fûts" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foutus ← ffoutus · fotuus · foutsu · fouttus · foutuss · fouuts · fuotus · ofutus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "foutus" and "fûts" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foutus" is an adjective and "fûts" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "foutus" or "fûts" show up more?
"foutus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,712 in our French list, against #21,949 for "fûts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "foutus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fûts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #246,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foutus" and "fûts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouets vs fûts". 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 #246,326 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