Which to use
“fumée” is a noun and “fumez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,673
- “fumée” frequency rank
- #32,824
- “fumez” frequency rank
- 37497
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fumée | fumez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nuée de particules en suspension dans l’air formant une masse gazeuse opaque, qui sort des choses brûlées, ou extrêmement échauffées par le feu. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de fumer. |
Same sound, different letters: fumée vs fumez
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. fumée (CVCVV) and fumez (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Ear matches; page differs - fumée and fumez
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: fumée and fumez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \fy.me\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37497, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fumée is recorded at frequency rank #4,673, classified as anoun, pronounced \fy.me\. fumez is at rank #32,824, tagged as averb, pronounced \fy.me\.
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 37497, this pair ranks #262,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fumée vs fumez
Shared letters: efmu. Private to "fumée": é. Private to "fumez": z.
"fumée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "fumez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fumez ← ffumez · fmuez · fuemz · fumezz · fummez · fumze · ufmez
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fumée" for "fumez" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fumée" vs "fumez" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"fumée" and "fumez" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "fumée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fumez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #262,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fumée" and "fumez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fumez". 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 #262,104 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.