fumentvsfumezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,294
“fument” frequency rank
#32,824
“fumez” frequency rank
52118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fument fumez
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de fumer. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de fumer.

Where the eye mixes fument and fumez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fument runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against fumez's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fument
5 ch
fumez

Visual trap between fument and fumez

A purely visual mix-up. fument (\fym\) and fumez (\fy.me\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fument is recorded at frequency rank #19,294, classified as averb, pronounced \fym\. 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 52118, this pair ranks #150,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fument vs fumez

Shared letters: efmu. Private to "fument": nt. Private to "fumez": z.

"fument" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "fumez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fumentffument · fmuent · fuemnt · fumennt · fumentt · fumetn · fumment · fumnet
  • fumezffumez · fmuez · fuemz · fumezz · fummez · fumze · ufmez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fument" and "fumez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fym\ versus \fy.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fument" or "fumez"?
"fument" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,294 in our French list, against #32,824 for "fumez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fument" 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 #150,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fument" 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 #150,042 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