fritevsfurieConfusable pair

Which to use

“frite” and “furie” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,558
“frite” frequency rank
#23,873
“furie” frequency rank
47431
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frite furie
Definition Pomme de terre coupée en bâtonnets et frite dans l’huile. Divinité infernale dont la fonction était de tourmenter les méchants, les criminels, soit dans les enfers, soit sur la terre.

Where the eye mixes frite and furie

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

5 ch
frite
5 ch
furie

Why the eye confuses frite with furie

A purely visual mix-up. frite (\fʁit\) and furie (\fy.ʁi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frite is recorded at frequency rank #23,558, classified as anoun, pronounced \fʁit\. furie is at rank #23,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fy.ʁi\.

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 47431, this pair ranks #187,007 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of frite vs furie

Shared letters: efir. Private to "frite": t. Private to "furie": u.

"frite" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "furie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • friteffrite · firte · friet · fritte · frrite · frtie · rfite
  • furieffurie · fruie · fuire · furei · furrie · ufrie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "frite" and "furie" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fʁit\ versus \fy.ʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "frite" or "furie" show up more?
"frite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,558 in our French list, against #23,873 for "furie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "frite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "furie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #187,007 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frite" and "furie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "furie vs furtive". 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 #187,007 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